When a landlord says”This doesn’t apply to you but you need to sign it anyway”

and the form they want you to sign requires you to acknowledge future extra rent increases and the complete deregulation of your apartment, shouldn't that raise a red flag which then bonks you across the bridge of the nose?

Gotham West Management has been forcing tenants who reside in units with up to 35 years of protective rent restrictions to sign 421a riders in which they agree to future escalating rent increases of 2½% per year and complete deregulation when the building's 421a benefits expire – an event that will occur many years before tenants' rent protections will expire. 

There is nothing that would prevent Gotham West Management from preparing 421a riders with language that would accurately apply to rent-restricted units, and in fact, outsiders have shown them how to do it. But Gotham West persists in forcing the protected tenants to agree to increases and deregulation that would be illegal if ever applied. 

They are amassing a mountain of papers which say that you and I agreed to the increases and the deregulation. Ten years down the pike they may wave them in our faces as they're padding our bills and deregulating our apartments. Will it be legal? No. Will they get away with it? They might if it were not for a new piece of legislation that is in the pipeline.

New York Senate Bill S5651, introduced by our State Senator Brad Hoylman, will make it a criminal misdemeanor with a fine of $1000 or a prison term of up to one year, or both a fine and imprisonment, if a landlord willfully includes incorrect or misleading information in any so-called 421a notice. The bill also prevents the landlord from even including a 421a notice in a tenant's lease if that tenant's apartment will remain subject to rent regulation or rent control after the expiration of 421a benefits.

The legislation was created during the fury of last spring's rent reforms but finished too late to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. It did, however, pass the Judiciary Committee. S5651 has a sister-bill in the Assembly, A7990, which was introduced by Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal. 

We will resume the push on these bills in January.