Ask Altagracia: My landlord threatened to raise my rent after I reported unsafe wiring. What are my rights?
- It is illegal for a landlord to retaliate against you for a good faith complaint
- Your lease locks in your rent and prevent increases during the lease term
One thing to consider: Is your landlord just bluffing or venting? Since the law is on your side, you may want to sit back and do nothing.
iStock
After I filed a complaint about faulty wiring, the landlord has been threatening to raise my rent. Is that considered retaliation? What can I do?
There are many layers of protection in place to ensure you live in a safe and habitable apartment. “Under the warranty of habitability, landlords are required by law to ensure conditions in your apartment are not dangerous,” said Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, attorney and founder of Outerbridge Law representing residential tenants, condo owners and landlords.
To that end you are entitled to call 311 and make a good faith complaint to a city agency about conditions like faulty wiring in your apartment. “A landlord’s efforts to punish you after you’ve exercised that right are the very definition of retaliation,” Pierre-Outerbridge said.
Your lease locks in the rent
If the landlord responds to a complaint with a threat to raise your rent, your first layer of protection is your lease. A landlord can only raise your rent at renewal time and under both rent stabilization and Good Cause eviction laws, there are caps on rent increases. “If there's a lease in effect it remains in effect and the landlord cannot increase rent mid-way through the lease term,” Pierre-Outerbridge said.
The point here is that the landlord cannot bake these repairs into your rent. Rent increases for stabilized apartments are approved annually by The Rent Guidelines Board and if the lease begins before September 2026 the renewal rate cannot be above 3 percent for a one-year lease and 4.5 percent for a two-year lease. Good Cause currently caps rent increases to 8.79 percent.
The right to fight back in housing court
It is also illegal for a landlord to retaliate against you for a good faith complaint to a city agency. “An unreasonable rent increase within one year of making a complaint is presumed to be a retaliatory action,” Pierre-Outerbridge said. Landlords found to have illegally retaliated against tenants face fines and other fees.
If the landlord steps up the pressure by suing you for non-payment or seeking eviction through a holdover case, you would be able to make a counterclaim of retaliation. “It’s not a mere defense—you are suing for retaliation in the non-payment or holdover case,” Pierre-Outerbridge said. If you are successful your landlord is blocked from trying to evict you for a year.
Knowing when not to escalate
One strategy to stop this kind of behavior from your landlord is to make it clear that you know your rights. Another is to sit tight and wait until they take action. “I usually tell my clients not to add fuel to the fire because sometimes the landlord is just venting,” Pierre-Outerbridge said.
Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Esq. is the owner of Outerbridge Law P.C, focusing primarily on tenant representation. The firm represents all sides in landlord-tenant litigation and transactional matters such as month-to-month holdovers, nuisance cases, licensee cases, harassment claims, repair cases, tenant buyouts, succession claims, DHCR overcharges and rent reductions and more. Pierre-Outerbridge has 15 years of experience litigating in Supreme, DHCR, and Housing Court. To submit a question for this column, click here. To contact Outerbridge Law P.C. directly, call 212-364-5612 or 877-OUTERBRIDGE, or schedule a meeting today.
You Might Also Like
