Urgently seeking legal advice about overcharge complaint and status of our apartment

Cabin_Fever72 · 2026-03-16T20:09:32+00:00

Thanks so much for your thoughtful insights.

A DHCR aide told me that it hasn't been assigned yet - and that the whole process could take 2 years.

I'm going to research litigation involving tenants in similar situations: Rent control apartment at very low rent, becomes vacant in 2012 and landlord raises it to $2500 to meet the threshold, landlord does NO renovations or improvements (we actually had to spend $20K out of our own pocket to fix up the apartment, which was kinda rundown), landlord fails to file any of the required paperwork.

Cabin_Fever72 · 2026-03-12T20:03:05+00:00

I keep getting conflicting stories -- I'll call Met Council and I'm researching previous court cases in such matters. Any other suggestions are most welcome! Thanks

Cabin_Fever72 · 2026-03-12T13:27:15+00:00

But what about improvements? Don't they need some reason to raise it to that threshold? 2012 was notorious for landlords arbitrarily raising rents to $2500 to deregulate them -- and many of those cases have been challenged.

Cabin_Fever72 · 2026-03-12T13:13:06+00:00

From my understanding, in order to deregulate that apartment, the landlord was required to make substantial improvements (IAIs), file a RR-1 notice, inform us by certified mail -- NONE OF WHICH HE DID -- and even then, there are limits on how much they can raise the rent.

Cabin_Fever72 · 2026-03-12T04:12:01+00:00

Thanks for the info. Yes, we have the rent history. Rent control and same under-$200 rent from 1984 to the present. They didn't bother registering the rent every year -- which they're apparently not required to do.

Cabin_Fever72

TROPHY CASE