How shall i deal with rent increase?

What bugs me is that she wants to increase the rent over 10% out of the blue and i was not and am not prepared for that.

I believe you were paying what is called "preferential rent" which permits the landlord to charge less than the amount stipulated in the lease.

Here are the terms and conditions around preferential rent from the NYC Rent Guidelines Board:

http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/dhcr/dhcr40.html

Best of luck to you.

What is the quality of your relationship with the LL?

AS a renter you don't have many rights. If you hadn't been getting rent increases all these years, consider yourself lucky. 10% above what you paid back in 2009 is quite reasonable. The landlord deserves to make a buck too as their costs have certainly gone up.

"What bugs me is that she wants to increase the rent over 10% out of the blue and i was not and am not prepared for that."

You really should have been.

No rent increase is a *gift*. You should have been budgeting all along for increases.

>AS a renter you don't have many rights.
>You really should have been.

What is with the two of you?

sledgehammer, if you have a good relationship, negotiate. Even if you have a bad relationship, negotiate. Do the sob story if you have to, end up somewhere in between. You of course have been fortunate to not have increases in the past couple years.

move out to a place you can afford

If your apartment is actually rent-regulated, then your landlord cannot simply change your status to that of a month-to-month tenant. You should go to DHCR (Division of Housing and Community Renewal), with a copy of your original lease. Request a copy of the rent registration history for your apartment. If the amount that the LL has been registering as the legal rent doesn't jibe, you can file an overcharge complaint. From what you have described, it seems that you may be faced with paying the current legal rent. However, your LL cannot just simply call you up and demand more money. There is a very specific time frame in which the LL of a rent-regulated unit must proffer a renewal lease; not more than 150 days & not less than 90 days before the current lease expires. This offer must be made in writing. The clock doesn't start until you receive a proper offer. Until then, you can continue paying the current rent. Good Luck.

sth similar happened in our building, some tenants negotiated a discount in 2009-2010 that resulted in double digit increases once the leverage came back to normal. they were kicking and screaming against ~20% increases, imho unless the tenant saves the discount, it's better not to go that route. most of those who did ended up having to move and footing the bill for relocating. seems that the discount went into higher fixed expenses instead of going towards savings.

More of the entitlement mentality rears it's ugly head.

I agree with RENY: Landlords that think they are entitled to ignore the law and steal from tenants are ugly indeed. I hope that you follow up with DHCR and force this miscreant to respect the law. Landlords are bound by leases and law even though some of them think that chanting "owner" entitles them to special privileges.

In your case, the landlord's attempt to create a month to month tenancy is in blatant violation of the RS law. On the other hand, the rent discount should be binding to the end of the lease term the landlord was required to offer: a landlord is not entitled to the legal maximum rent if she agreed to a lower amount.

Not sure why financeguy agrees with RENY. The correct person here is SunnyD, and his factual presentation of the law in favor of the tenant doesn't involve some MSNBC mumbojumbo propaganda.

If you're rent stabilized, your landlord cannot simply raise your rent out of the blue -- as SunnyD and another poster mentioned, there's a very precise protocol for notifying tenants of lease renewals and rent increases. I don't know if LL can now claim the money he/she wasn't charging you (never been in that situation--although I think another poster provided the relevant section of the law on that issue), but I do know LL cannot simply call you up and announce an increase -- it has to be in writing, and you need notice of at lease a few months, as another poster mentioned. And if you're truly rent stabilized, LL cannot suddenly move you to a month-to-month arrangement. Let us know what happens ...

This post seems to contain a significant amount of misinformation.

Lanzz has is most correct.

To clarify - If you live in a unit where legal rent (as properly calculated accoring to DHCR and RGB guidelines) has exceeded market rent, and you are therefore receiving a preferential market rent, the landlord can increase your rent upon renewal up to the legal rent. The legal rent is a ceiling, and it increases every year. While there aren't too many well-located Manhattan apartments where this is the case outside of some walk-up studios and one-bedrooms, this is the standard in the outer boroughs where vacancy increases have pushed legal rent of many apartments far beyond market rent.

What rightrent said. I am in that situation (in East Harlem) in actually a BRAND new building but that somehow, amzingly, has legel rents of up to $7k in some units, though NONE rent for more than $4k. I think for this area the city let them use Carnegie Hill or Manhattan-wide PPSF in setting the legal rent. A scam and a scandal. But yet, my LL COULD raise my rent to like $6800 but I pay half that. I asked a lawyer to look at the lease and everything.

I am not so sure the landlord created a month to month lease. Sledge references a yearly renewal with the correct rental percentage increase and then the rent is brought back down to the 2009 rent. This is clearly a preferential rent difference.

The issue with preferential rent then becomes how was it written in as many years ago they changed the interpretation of the law and it came down to language in the lease. For instance my lease read "for the life of the tenancy" this caused the LL to respect my right to the preferential piece until I moved out. The second would just be general for the current lease.

My guess is possibly the LL here let the renter know that with the next renewal she was not offering the preferential rent. If this is the case and she only offered the preferential rent with each lease and not for life of tenancy then Sledge will be out of luck and count himself lucky that as every other LL in the city was raising rent his LL left it as is.

Jason the retard: What rightrent said. I am in that situation (in East Harlem) in actually a BRAND new building
Original Poster: We've been in same rent regulated apt for 10y.

Thanks you all for your input.
We've had indeed a preferential rent since late 2008. I checked my papers, the last lease we signed was a 2y lease from 07/2008 to 07/2010. We havn't signed any renewal ever since but have been mailed each year a copy of the DHCR Annual apartment registration form, showing the legal rent and the preferential rent we pay, except this form doesn t have a lease time frame, it checks None. The last DHCR form we received was for 2012 and is identical to the ones we've received in 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.
So my understanding is that i should ask my landlord for a proper lease renewal proposal within that 90days period, but what i don t understand is if she can charge us the legal rent shown for the last 4y on this DHCR form or if she can add an xtra 4% to that amount for a 2y lease renewal as mentioned below:
http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/RenewalVacancyIncreases.htm

Sledge rent increases for stabalized properties are mandated by the percentage approved by the housing board. So each time you renew after 1 or 2 years depending on the lease the legal rent will increase by either the 1 year or 2 year percentage depending on length of lease. As to whether she could up you to the legal rent or not depends on the language in the preferential rent rider. The words used are very important as it will be the differnce between being able to argue for its continuation or losing it completely.

I went to the DOH and they told me that any rent increase or renewal should be notified in writting between 150 and 90 days before the lease expiration or rent increase. I played hard ball and refused to send more money until I got a written contract which I received this month. New rent increase is set for Aug 1st which is exactly what I was hoping for.
Thanks for your advices.