Deregulation of Apartments

In New York City, Local Law No. 4 provides for deregulation of apartments whenever the legal rent for those apartments reach $2,000 or more and are occupied by tenants with an income in excess of $175,000 in each of the two successive years prior to the owner's application for deregulation.

Tenants should watch out for two things. Firs, make sure you respond if the landlord serves you with an Income Certification Form (ICF). An ICF is a demand for financial information to determine if the tenant is making more than $175k in the previous two years. If you fail to respond to the ICF, your apartment may be automatically deregulated, and you don't want that!

Second, landlord's often claim that an apartment is deregulated when a $2000-a-month apartment becomes vacant. In such a case, an income theshold is not necessary. This is a potentially shady method of deregulation, especially when the $2000 rent is supposedly justified by improvements made tothe apartment while it was vacant. Tenants who move into such freshly-deregulated apartments should be wary of fraud.