An idle question really. A buddy of mine has a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan. Nice place, the rent is simply amazing. His family plotted for years to get the place for him.
So how does a regular slob get a rent-controlled apartment in NYC? Secret brokers? Scan the obits?
Basically, you can’t. You can only qualify for Rent Control if you’ve been living in the apartment continuously since 1971, AND your building was built before 1947. If the person who has qualified for Rent Control dies or vacates, the status converts to Rent Stabilization automatically – UNLESS a close family member remains in residence, and that family member has lived there for two years before the death of the original rent controlled tenant (called “sucession rights”). While family member can be a fluidly defined term, there is a high burden of proof to show you are one, if you aren’t a first order blood relation or step-sibling/parent/child.
Over the years, by the process of automatic conversion, Rent Control in NYC has given way to the far more common-and-economically-viable “Rent Stabilization.” The Rent Stabilization Board sets the rental increase for each year, and tenants are protected from any reduction in services by the landlord (for example, not keeping the elevator in repair). These are usually a good deal within their neighborhood, but not a crazy deal like you hear about with old Rent Control.
You need to know someone to get in, even then it’s hard 'cause people can make more money sub-leasing than giving them up.
There are housing lists you can get on as well. However it gives priority to families and often the housing is substandard.
NYC also has hidden costs like “key deposits” (cash payments, up front, every year) and such.
When I lived in Manhattan, my employer paid for me to stay there, while I opened some new hotels. There was nothing (around 2000) that I could find for less than $2,000 a month that was livable. Even then it wasn’t much or had issues with the flats.
Best thing to do is find someone WITH rent control and when they get sick of livign in Manhattan, sub-lease from them
Of course you’re not “supposed to do this,” as another posted noted, there are rules but they’re broken left and right, when you shell over a few bucks
Just wondering if someone could explain just how rent control works. Somebody once told me that it means your rent never goes up, so you may be paying, say, 1960s prices for an apartment (provided you’ve lived there that long). But that didn’t sound right.
Anyway, it’s one of those things you always hear about, especially if you watch a lot of shows and movies set in NYC, but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a really good explanation of how it works.
To be clear, this has nothing to do with “Rent Control.”
That’s public or subsidized housing provided through agencies like
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/home/home.shtml
and
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/apartment/apartment.shtml
BTW, households making more than $100,000 can be eligible for some types of subsidized housing in NYC.
But the landlords hire people to discover illegal sublets and people who have rent-controlled apartments but spend most of their time in another apartment or house (sometimes even out of town).
The second an apartment is vacated, the landlord can go up to “market rent.”
What would 1960s prices be, anyway?
I watched The Goodbye Girl (1977) a couple years ago and at some point Marsha Mason refers to the rent being $200 a month!
I wish I paid $200 a month!
Interesting euphemism for “it’s illegal”. :mad:
Seriously? I’ve lived in NYC for several years and never had a key deposit or anything and I’ve never paid more than $1500 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. I’ve had one unlivable place but that had nothing to do with NYC and everything to do with the shitty landlord.
Rent control is almost impossible to find but rent stabilized places aren’t too difficult to come across. Your best bet would be to hire an apartment finder and explain exactly what you are looking for and your price range.
As stated above, in NYC there’s a difference between rent control and rent stabilization.
With rent stabilization the rent isn’t frozen. It goes up a few percent a year (or 2 if you get a 2 year lease). I got into my apartment in 1992 and now I pay about twice what I paid then.
Here’sthe rent guidelines board page on rent control and stabilization. There’s a lot of “it depends” in there.
Also, subletting a rent stabilized apartment isn’t illegal. You just have to go through the owner to do it, you can only sublet 2 of every 4 years, etc. etc.
The Division of Housing and Community Renewal sets an annual increase in rents for rent controlled apartments. So there are increases but they’re not at the owner’s discretion.
How much would these increases typically be and how do they differ from those on rent stabilized apartments.
Agree about the key deposit, but seriously, you’ve been getting 2 bedroom apartments for under $1500? You clearly don’t live in Manhattan (at least not below 160th street).
The cheapest rent I’ve ever paid in NY was $2300 for a small (400 square feet) place in West Village. Back in 2003. Sure, it had “luxuries” like a washer/dryer and was on a beautiful street in a prime neighborhood, so a shabbier apartment could probably be had for less. But a 2 bedroom for $1500? Such a deal.
shrug I pay $800 for a studio only a little smaller than the one you mentioned, with hardwood floors, washer and dryer in the building, and a walk-in closet. And it’s below 160th St. (admittedly not by much, though). I think rent here is not as high as some people make it out to be.
I think $800 for a postage stamp-sized studio in Hamilton Heights is about what people would expect.
What people outside New York don’t understand is that the sliding scale can go quite low as you get further and further from the really overheated areas (Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights).
Deleted as non-responsive.
I live in Manhattan below 125th now and I have a huge 2 bedroom (almost 1000 sq ft) for $1395 a month. These deals are out there and not too difficult to find but you do have to be willing to make some sacrifices. I don’t live in Midtown, I live in East Harlem. I paid a fairly substantial fee to an apartment finder to have her dig up the places that worked best for me in my price range. I live a couple of blocks from the train. I had a bigger 2 bedroom half a block from the train on 181st and that was the $1500 place. That was the most I’ve ever paid for rent in NYC.
I pay $2000 for a big one bedroom in Midtown (51st & 9th). Five Story elevator building with laundry in the basement. My rent last year for the same apartment was $2600, but I threatened to move, and they went all the way down to $2000.