INSIGHTS

The J-51 tax abatement is a New York City property tax benefit that helps owners of residential buildings offset the cost of major renovation work. It has two parts: an …

Good Cause Eviction is a New York State law, effective in New York City since April 20, 2024, that limits when a landlord can evict a tenant or refuse to …

Preferential rent is a rent an owner charges a rent-stabilized tenant that is lower than the legal regulated rent on file for the apartment. Every stabilized unit has a legal …

An individual apartment improvement, or IAI, is a renovation made inside a single rent-regulated apartment that lets an owner raise that unit's legal regulated rent. Unlike a building-wide major capital …

A major capital improvement, or MCI, is a building-wide upgrade to a rent-regulated property that an owner can partially recover through an approved rent increase on the building's rent-stabilized and …

The Rent Guidelines Board, often called the RGB, is a New York City agency that sets annual rent adjustment limits for rent-stabilized apartments, lofts, and certain hotel units. Its decisions …

HSTPA, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, is the New York law that rewrote the state's rent regulation system. Signed on June 14, 2019, it made rent …

DHCR is the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, the agency that administers and enforces the state's rent regulation laws. It operates within New York State Homes …

The 15% rule is shorthand for the conversion threshold: the share of a building's units a sponsor had to put under contract before a non-eviction plan could be declared effective …

In NYC co-op and condo practice, a red herring is the preliminary version of a building's offering plan, the sponsor's draft disclosure document, circulated to prospective buyers or to tenants …

In NYC co-op and condo practice, the black book is the final offering plan for a building, the sponsor's disclosure document, once it has been accepted for filing by the …

A QEWI, or Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector, is the licensed professional that New York City requires a building owner to retain to inspect the exterior walls and file the facade …

A FISP sub-cycle is the two-year window during which a specific NYC building must file its Local Law 11 facade report with the Department of Buildings. The Facade Inspection Safety …

A SWARMP designation, short for Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program, is one of three classifications a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector (QEWI) can assign to a building's facade under …

FISP, the Facade Inspection Safety Program, is the NYC Department of Buildings program that enforces Local Law 11, requiring the owner of every building taller than six stories to have …

An expediter, also spelled expeditor, is a NYC professional who manages the filing, tracking, and approval of building permits, plans, and applications with the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) and …

An ALT-2 permit is a NYC Department of Buildings permit for renovation work that involves multiple trades, such as plumbing, electrical, mechanical, or structural, but does not change the building's …

An ALT-1 permit, referred to as an Alteration-CO under the DOB NOW filing system, is a NYC Department of Buildings permit required for major construction work that changes a building's …

The NYC Co-op and Condo Tax Abatement is a property tax reduction administered by the NYC Department of Finance under Section 467-a of the Real Property Tax Law. It reduces …

The 32BJ contract is the industry-wide collective bargaining agreement between 32BJ SEIU, the union representing approximately 34,000 NYC residential building service workers, and the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations …

A flip tax is a transfer fee charged by a NYC co-op or condo when a unit is sold, paid to the building itself to fund reserves, capital improvements, or …

A recognition agreement is a three-party contract between a NYC co-op corporation, a shareholder, and the shareholder's lender that allows co-op shares and the proprietary lease to serve as collateral …

A proprietary lease is the long-term lease between a NYC co-op corporation and a shareholder that grants the shareholder the exclusive right to occupy a specific apartment in the building. …

An alteration agreement is a contract between a NYC co-op or condo unit owner and the building's board that governs any renovation, construction, or installation work inside the unit. It …

A board package is the formal application a prospective buyer or renter submits to a NYC co-op or condo board for approval before closing on a sale or signing a …