THANKS to Legal Aid Attorney Ellen Davidson for her inquiry with its supporting memorandum of law to DHCR.

Click here for a copy of the letter.

Click on "read more" below for explanation of Rent Guidelines Board Order #40.

Every June, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board issues orders determining how much of an increase tenants must pay for leases renewed that go intio effect from October 1 of that year through September 30th of the following year.

In the guidelines issued in June 2008, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board provided that those paying the lowest rents - generally the poorest tenants - must pay the highest rent increases.

Instead of the 4.5% for a 1-year lease renewal or 8.5% for a 2-year lease renewal, rent stabilized tenants who have lived in their apartments for 6 years or more must pay at least $45 for a 1-year lease renewal and $85 for a 2-year lease renewal.

Where a tenant has been paying $500 a month, for example, paying $45 is a 9% increase, and paying $85 is a 17% rent increase.

While challenging that provision for all tenants in court, Ellen Davidson of Legal Aid also wrote to DHCR's Office of Rent Administration asking whether those increases apply where a tenant has lived in the same apartment for more than 6 years, but that apartment was not even in rent stabilization 6 years ago - because it used to be in Mitchell-Lama.

DHCR accepted the reasoning in Ellen's memorandum of law and agreed that where the former Mitchell-Lama development was not even in rent stabilization 6 years ago, the 6-year extra payment required under RGB Order #40 does not apply.