Hi there,
I have signed a lease over a year ago and this lease is up for renewal. The building is rent stabilized (or the apartment I am in) and are receiving 421a benefits. The lease renewal form that was sent is the “THIS IS A NOTICE OF RENEWAL OF LEASE AND RENTAL LEASE FORM ISSUED UNDER SECTION 2523.5(a) OF THE RENT STABILIZATION CODE” form. An extra page was attached and contains the following wording:
The rent payments for the last two (2) months of the lease are waived. Tenant shall be permitted to amortize the credit over the duration of the lease. Net Rent payment due with credit amortized shall be $XXXX per month for each of the XX months of the lease.
The amount noted for $XXXX is substantially higher than the rent I was paying in my original lease. The original lease had a rent amount and a page attached to it with exactly the same wording but the $XXXX was much less.
The landlord delivered the lease renewal less than 90 days before the end of my lease. They refuse to allow me to see another unit which was just listed on StreetEasy on a higher floor which is much larger for the same price saying that it is in contract.
The land lord is now pressuring me to sign the lease renewal form with the rider which makes my "net rent due with credit amortized" to be much higher than what I was originally paying. To make things worse, I recently lost my job.
What advice would anyone have for me on this? I have read a lot of material about preferential rent I am confused on what to do next and would really appreciate some guidance.
Thank you