e-Help Report: My Rent's About to Double!

If you're renting in New York you're used to having some protections. Most apartments are rent stabilized. But one woman is seeing her rent about to double, even though she's under rent stabilization, or so she thought.

One woman wrote us that her rent was about to double. She's been living in her rent stabilized apartment for three years now. Right now she's paying $950. a month but a new lease would have her paying more than $1800. She questions if that's legal.

We spoke to attorney Tim Collins who's with the New York State Tenants and Neighbors Information Service in Chelsea, in Manhattan. Collins informs us it is legal and explains why.

"You're asking about preferential rents", he says. "The roots of preferential rents is what a lot of lawyers might refer to as sweetheart leases. These are situations where tenants and owners, for some reason, have agreed to rent the apartment at a rent lower than the legal rent that the owner would otherwise be allowed to charge."

"If you had a preferential rent", he continues, "one of these lower-than-legal rents, the owner could only charge the guideline increases that are adopted every year by the Rent Guidelines Board and so the tenant with the preferential rent was protected over the long term.

In 2003 the state legislature changed the rule and allowed, in many instances, owners to cease the preferential rent, terminate it upon renewal, and go right up to the legal rent."

"Furthermore", he continues, "In the case of preferential rent, it may well be that a rent could go from$900 to $1800 unless the tenant can demonstrate that there was an intent, at the outset of the tenancy, through the language of the lease or some lease rider, that the sweetheart deal or the preferential rent level was intended to last for the duration of the tenancy."

"Most people don't read the leases they sign", adds Collins. "And New York", he said, "is still a city where housing, affordable housing, is very scarce. Most tenants are happy to sign anything that's put in front of them in order to get an apartment.

"If the language is not in the lease, if there's no reference to a preferential rent at all, then they can't present evidence that they were entitled to renew with a preferential rent."

So check your lease. If the language isn't there, if it doesn't say that the preferential rent will last for as long as you're a tenant, you're out of luck.