Hello!
We moved into our apartment in October 2020 signing a lease that is typical to those I had in other cities. When we were looking to rent the apartment, the broker confirmed with the LL that the unit is RS. We are paying Preferred Rent, and last week we got a call from LL saying that there is interest in the unit, and we'd have to pay the Legal Rent to renew.
I've done my homework, read the fact sheets, called DHCR, and am currently figuring out either what to say to LL or if I should go straight to filing Rent Overcharge and a Lease Violation with DHCR.
I requested, received, and reviewed the Registration History for my apartment, and confirmed our names are listed as well as being RS. What's concerning though is that LL submitted the Preferred Rate at what our lease claims is the Legal Rate. Confirming we're RS, I know that with HSPTA of 2019 LL could only charge us based on Preferred Rate.
In regard to the lease, we were not provided a normal Vacancy Lease when we moved in, we've just had the lease that tries to avoid mentioning RS. No riders either.
Basically, my questions are:
1. Should we talk to LL first or file with DHCR? LL is very sketchy.
2. Do we need to do something regarding the vacancy lease, or is getting an official RS renewal lease enough?
3. If LL claims we must pay the legal rate, what's our best course of action come the end of the current lease? Continue paying our Preferred Rate with the 0% increase? Pay the legal rate and wait for the results of Rent Overcharge? We just don't want to get evicted.
Thanks for any help, and I'm happy to provide more info!