New Website Will Help New Yorkers Find Out if Their Apartment Is Rent Stabilized
Let’s face it, we all feel that we’re paying too much for our tiny NYC apartments, and while for most of us that’s just the name of the game, for others who are living in a rent-stabilized unit but being charged market-rate rent, it’s actually true. Want to know if you fall into that boat? A new website called amirentstabilized.com will help you find out.
The site allows renters to search their building to see if it’s on the city’s list of addresses with rent stabilized units. Unfortunately, it can’t tell you if your specific apartment is one of them, but it’s a great first step and provides resources for confirming your unit’s status, as well as filing a complaint if you’re being overcharged.
The site was created by Chris Henrick, a 33-year-old student at Parsons MFA Design and Technology program. He told DNAinfo, “The current rent-stabilized stock is estimated to be around 1 million apartments, and if you look at what landlords are doing, they really have no incentive to keep them. For them it’s just a matter of business.” While Mayor de Blasio’s goal is to build 80,000 new affordable housing units, Henrick feels that more focus should fall on preserving the city’s current affordable apartment stock.
Amirentstabilized.com contains more than 50,000 searchable tax lots. Henrick created the database by “combining a list of every rent-stabilized apartment from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal with a list of every building with more than six units built before 1974.” All users do is enter their address and borough, and if the lot appears orange on the map, it likely contains rent-stabilized units.
[Via DNAinfo]
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