Avoid Steep New Penalties for Delinquent Rent Registration
The DHCR issues a new Operational Bulletin covering filing deadlines and penalties.
This year, as a result of legislation passed in December 2023, owners have to contend with significant penalties for missing or late apartment registrations. In December 2023, Governor Hochul signed legislation (S2980C/A6216B) that set a penalty of $500 per unregistered unit for each month a rent registration is delinquent. Under prior law, if a registration wasn’t filed, there was a surcharge of 50 percent above the timely apartment registration fee for each untimely registration. However, there was no other monetary penalty for a late registration.
The legislation came about in response to reports that the number of apartments owners registered as rent stabilized had been dropping significantly even after the passage of the Housing Stability and Protection Act of 2019, which removed almost all paths out of rent regulation. According to the 2023 Annual Report issued by the DHCR’s Office of Rent Administration (ORA), the number of registered rent-stabilized apartments dropped by approximately 46,000 from 2022 to 2023. The decrease was largely attributed to late filers.
The DHCR has issued Operational Bulletin 2024-1 that covers rent registration filing deadlines and penalties for delinquent registrations. We’ll go over what the DHCR says about registration requirements.
Registration Requirements
Rent stabilization laws require owners to file initial and annual registration statements with the DHCR for each rent-stabilized unit. Here are the DHCR reminders for each registration type.
Initial registrations. Owners must file initial registrations within 90 days after an apartment becomes subject to rent stabilization. Initial registrations submitted after this time are considered delinquent.
Annual registrations. Owners are required to register their rent-stabilized apartments annually with the DHCR. The deadline for the submission of annual registrations with DHCR is July 31st of the registration year. Annual registrations for a given year submitted after this date are delinquent.
Penalties for Delinquent Registrations
The authorized penalties for delinquent registrations are steep. In addition to other penalties and sanctions under the rent stabilization laws, the DHCR is now authorized to fine building owners $500 per unregistered unit, per month.
Delinquency Notice
The DHCR says that failure to file annual registrations will trigger a notice of delinquency from the agency. The DHCR will send owners a notice of the delinquency by email and hard copy mail to the address listed on the owner’s most recent DHCR registration statement. In the event that the delinquency isn’t cured, the owner will be subject to the monthly fine of $500 per unregistered unit.