2023 New York Laws › PVH - Private Housing Finance › Article 13 - Miscellaneous › 610 - Rental Assistance and Legal Regulated Rents.

§   610.   Rental   assistance  and  legal  regulated  rents.  1.  (a)
Notwithstanding  the  emergency  tenant  protection  act   of   nineteen
seventy-four   or   the  rent  stabilization  law  of  nineteen  hundred
sixty-nine, any regulation promulgated pursuant to such act or  law,  or
any  other provision of law, where a housing accommodation is subject to
a regulatory agreement with  a  state  or  municipal  agency  or  public
benefit  corporation, or a political subdivision of the state, and where
a federal, state, or local program provides rental assistance  for  such
housing  accommodation, such state or municipal agency or public benefit
corporation, or political subdivision of the state, may  allow  in  such
regulatory  agreement  the owner of such housing accommodation to charge
and collect a rent for such housing  accommodation  that  (i)  does  not
exceed  the  maximum  payment  standard or contract rent that the rental
assistance program may provide for such housing accommodation, but  (ii)
does exceed the legal regulated rent for the housing accommodation.
(b) If any such rental assistance ends upon the vacancy of the housing
accommodation,  the owner of such housing accommodation shall thereafter
charge and collect a rent for such housing accommodation that  does  not
exceed the lesser of (i) the previously established legal regulated rent
for   such  housing  accommodation,  as  adjusted  by  the  most  recent
applicable guidelines increases approved  by  a  rent  guidelines  board
established  pursuant to the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen
seventy-four and any other increases authorized by  law,  regardless  of
when  the  previously established legal regulated rent was last charged,
and (ii) any lower rent that is required by such regulatory agreement.
(c) If any such rental assistance ends during  a  tenancy,  including,
but  not  limited  to,  upon  the  renewal of a lease, the owner of such
housing accommodation shall thereafter charge and  collect  a  rent  for
such  housing  accommodation  that does not exceed the lesser of (i) the
previously  established  legal   regulated   rent   for   such   housing
accommodation,  as  adjusted  by  the  most recent applicable guidelines
increases approved by a rent guidelines board  established  pursuant  to
the  emergency  tenant  protection  act of nineteen seventy-four and any
other increases authorized by law, regardless  of  when  the  previously
established legal regulated rent was last charged, (ii) any rent charged
to  and  paid by the tenant immediately prior to the commencement of the
rental assistance that was less than the legal regulated rent  for  such
housing  accommodation,  as  adjusted  by  such  most  recent applicable
guidelines increases and any other  increases  authorized  by  law,  and
(iii) any lower rent that is required by such regulatory agreement.
2.  Any  rent  charged  pursuant to subdivision one of this section in
excess of the legal regulated rent for a housing accommodation shall not
be registered as the legal regulated  rent  pursuant  to  the  emergency
tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four or the rent stabilization
law   of   nineteen  hundred  sixty-nine.  The  owner  of  such  housing
accommodation shall continue to register the legal  regulated  rent  and
any  preferential  rent  calculated  according  to applicable guidelines
increases applied to the previously established legal regulated rent  or
preferential rent, respectively, and separately register the actual rent
charged to the tenant pursuant to subdivision one of this section.
3.  Where  the owner of a housing accommodation charges and collects a
rent  that  exceeds  the  legal  regulated   rent   for   such   housing
accommodation  pursuant  to  subdivision one of this section, such owner
shall provide every tenant of such housing accommodation with a  notice,
attached  to  the  initial  lease  and  all renewal leases, advising the
tenant in plain language that if  such  tenant  ceases  to  receive  the
rental  assistance  described in subdivision one of this section for any
reason, the rent for such  housing  accommodation  shall  be  the  legal

regulated rent, or any lower rent as required by subdivision one of this
section.  The  owner  shall disclose any applicable regulatory agreement
and the applicability of this section in any  legal  proceeding  brought
against a tenant whose rent is governed by this section.
4. An owner of a housing accommodation who fails to adjust a rent upon
the termination of any such rental assistance as required by subdivision
one  of  this  section  shall  refund  to  the  tenant the amount of the
overcharge and be liable for treble damages. The tenant shall  have  the
right  to  recover  such  overcharges and damages from the date of their
accrual, notwithstanding any statute of limitations  set  forth  in  the
emergency  tenant  protection  act  of nineteen seventy-four or the rent
stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine. The tenant  may  raise
such  an  overcharge  as  a claim or defense in any court of appropriate
jurisdiction, or  in  a  proceeding  at  the  division  of  housing  and
community  renewal,  pursuant  to the emergency tenant protection act of
nineteen seventy-four or the rent stabilization law of nineteen  hundred
sixty-nine.
5.  Where  a  regulatory  agreement  allows  an  owner  of  a  housing
accommodation to charge and collect a rent for the housing accommodation
that exceeds the legal regulated rent for such housing accommodation  in
accordance  with subdivision one of this section, the state or municipal
agency or public benefit corporation, or political  subdivision  of  the
state,  that  has  executed  the  regulatory  agreement shall audit such
owner's records at least once every three  years  to  verify  that  such
owner is complying with the provisions of this section.