Your Options Once You Receive a Rent Increase Notice

When you receive notice of a rent increase, you have three options:

• Pay the rent increase and stay,
• Refuse the increase and look for another place to live, or
• Stay and challenge the increase

Pay the Increase

Once you pay a proposed rent increase, you may be stuck with it, even if the original notice was not legal. This is because, if you later choose to challenge the increase in court, a judge may say that you have agreed to the increase by paying it.¹⁵

If you received a notice to quit with your rent increase notice, your landlord will not be able to use it to evict you once you start paying the higher rent.

After getting notice of an increase, if you do not have a written lease, you may want to ask for one in order to lock in your rent for a period of time.

Refuse the Increase and Look for Another Place

If you do not want to pay the increase or cannot afford to pay it, you should continue to pay the old rent while you look for a new apartment. If you refuse to pay the increase and continue to pay your old rent, your landlord is required to accept the old rent. She can, however, start the eviction process against you. But, as long as you offer to pay the old rent, your landlord can only start the eviction process by sending you a 30‑day notice to quit for a no-fault eviction. She cannot send you a 14‑day notice to quit and try to evict you for non‑payment of rent. You do not owe a rent increase you have not agreed to pay.

If your landlord gives you a notice to quit but then accepts the old rent amount without clearly telling you that she still plans to evict you or that your rent money is accepted "for use and occupancy only," then she may have given up the right to evict you using this notice. She can still try to evict you, but she must first send you a new notice to quit.

Remember

If you receive a notice to quit, you do not have to move by the date stated on the paper. A landlord must get a court's permission to move you out. If your case goes to court and a judge eventually gives the landlord permission to evict you, you can ask the judge for up to six months to find another apartment. Elderly or disabled tenants may ask for up to a year to find a new apartment.¹⁶

If your landlord does take you to court and a judge gives the landlord permission to evict you, a judge may order you to pay the fair rental value of your apartment until you move. This amount could be more or less than your old rent, depending on the condition of your place. Make sure you let the court know about any problems in your apartment so the rent can be reduced.

For more information, see the section in this chapter called Paying Rent: Tenants at Sufferance.For more information about your rights in an eviction case, see Chapter 13: Evictions.

Challenge the Increase

If you feel that the landlord's proposed rent increase is illegal or unreasonable and want to keep your apartment, there are a number of ways you may be able to challenge or renegotiate the increase.

Renegotiate Unfair Increases

While landlords are not legally required to negotiate with tenants, you may be able to convince a landlord to reconsider the amount of the increase. If you have a good relationship with the landlord, she may want to keep you as a tenant. You may also be able to persuade a landlord that, because of certain bad conditions in the apartment, you should not have to pay an increase.

Get Other Tenants to Fight the Increase

If you live in a building with other tenants, try to find out whether they, too, have received a rent increase notice. If you are the only one who has received notice, consider asking your landlord why this is so. If others have received notices, you may want to talk to them about how you can, as a group, put pressure on the landlord not to raise the rent as much or at all. The more people there are challenging a rent increase, the more likely a landlord may be to agree to lower the increase. For more information about organizing strategies, see Chapter 10: Getting Organized.

Withhold Your Rent

If there are poor conditions in your apartment that violate the state Sanitary Code and you have notified your landlord about these conditions, you may legally withhold some or all of your rent. There are specific requirements that you need to follow before you withhold your rent. For information about how to properly withhold your rent, see Chapter 8: Getting Repairs Made in the section called Withhold Rent.

This strategy may bring the landlord to the bargaining table to discuss both a repair schedule and lessening the amount of the proposed rent increase. In return for necessary repairs and a more reasonable rent increase, you could agree to stop withholding your rent. If you withhold rent, your landlord may try to evict you for non-payment of rent.

But if you have properly withheld your rent, you will have protected yourself against being evicted. You will also have a strong claim that your landlord is evicting you in retaliation for withholding your rent.

Document Why the Rent Increase Is Illegal

If you believe that your landlord has illegally raised your rent and you want to stay in your apartment, the best thing to do is to collect evidence that will prove that the increase is illegal. For example, if you feel that the landlord has retaliated against you for reporting violations of the state Sanitary Code, make sure you have a certified copy of a housing inspection report signed by the inspector who performed the inspection and copies of any letters that you sent the landlord about the conditions. If your landlord sends you an eviction notice, you will then be prepared to defend yourself if your landlord ever decides to take you to court.