NYC Rent Guidelines — Non-Primary Residence

Tenants' Rights Attorney

• Are you a tenant in a rent-stabilized apartment?
• Does your landlord believe that your apartment is not your primary residence?

Landlords are always interested in getting tenants in and out of a rent stabilized apartment. In doing so, they may be able to get the apartment deregulated at some point so they can start charging market rent. One of the most common arguments of landlords is that their tenant is not maintaining their apartment as their primary residence.

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Contact us or call 212-219-2100 to speak to a New York City tenants' rights and rent guidelines attorney.

Non-primary residence issues only apply to rent-stabilized apartments. The tenant must maintain the apartment as his or her primary residence in order to remain a rent-stabilized tenant. Rent-stabilized status has many benefits - the most significant being that rent-stabilized apartments are less expensive than market rent.

Why Are Non-Primary Residence Cases Brought?

• Ownership of second property — This can trigger a non-primary residence case. If the tenant owns another property (for example, a vacation home), the landlord may believe that the tenant is no longer residing in the apartment as a primary resident.
• Temporarily relocation — There are a variety of reasons a tenant may move to another location temporarily:
  • Being in a nursing home or institution for a period of time
  • Moving to another home to take care of an aging parent, sibling or child
  • Going to school in another city but wanting to maintain an apartment in NYC

Landlords are very eager to get their apartments deregulated — it means more money and more profit for them. Some landlords take outlandish approaches to do just that — finding ways in which to classify their tenants as being non-primary residents. Often, landlords take this approach, knowing that their tenants would not be able to afford legal representation in such cases, while they have a host of legal and professional resources on their side.

An apartment can be removed from the protection of the Rent Stabilization Law when rent reaches $2,000, and if the combined annual income of the tenants is $175,000 or greater in the past two years.

Find out more about luxury decontrol.

Our Approach

At Silberman Law Firm, we protect the rights of tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. In a non-primary residence proceeding, we look at a number of factors:

• Were predicate notices filed according to statutes?
• Were court papers served properly?

Pretrial discovery is permitted to the landlord, who has the right to obtain documentation to show where the tenant has been living for the past two years. If pretrial discovery is involved in your case, we will assist you in responding to discovery requests.

After investigation, we will explore the best options in your case. This could involve filing a motion practice, negotiating a settlement, or going to trial.

Contact Us — NYC Rent Guidelines

Give us a brief description of your case (by phone or e-mail), and we'll get back to you within one business day. At Silberman Law Firm, if you need a lawyer to talk about New York City rent guidelines, you will talk with a lawyer — not an assistant.

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Silberman Law Firm

Employment and Tenant

Since 1989