How To Find Out If Your Apartment Is Rent Stabilized

Frequently, we’ll get emails from neighbors who suspect they may be living in a rent-stabilized apartment, but their landlord is charging them a market rate rent.

It can be a super confusing topic, and even some of the Flatbush Tenant Coalition advocates said while traveling to Albany this week that they aren’t always clear about the ins and outs of rent stabilization.

So, how do we make sense of all of this?

First, what is a rent stabilized building?

In general, stabilized buildings will contain six or more units, were built before 1974, and are not co-ops or condos – but, not all of the apartments meeting this criteria are rent stabilized, as the city’s Rent Guidelines Board points out.

Also, make sure to note that rent stabilized is not the same thing as rent controlled. While the term rent regulated encompasses both rent controlled and rent stabilized units, it is far easier to find a rent stabilized apartment, of which there are about one million in the city. Meanwhile, there are only about 38,000 rent controlled apartments. For an apartment to be under rent control (which means a tenant is typically paying far less than market rate for their home), the tenant, or lawful successor, such as a family member or spouse, must have been living in that apartment continuously since before July 1, 1971. To read more about rent stabilization and rent control, you can go here.

You can go about finding out whether or not your building is rent stabilized a couple of different ways.

• One, a relatively new website has popped up – and the site’s name pretty much says it all: amirentstabilized.com. There, you can type in your address and, voila! It will let you know if your building is stabilized or not – or potentially stabilized.

• Two, contact New York’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal, the state agency that administers the rent laws, and ask if the apartment is (or should be) rent stabilized. You can call DHCR’s general info number at 1-866-ASK-DHCR (1-866-275-3427) or their rent help number at 718-739-6400. If you’d rather send an email, you can do so at RentInfo@nyshcr.org. Want more information? Go here.

And, of course, if everything still seems too confusing, you can reach out to the Flatbush Tenant Coalition by emailing ftcoalition@gmail.com or calling 347-470-8292.

For more of a primer on rent stabilization and affordable housing in general, you can go here.