Lucas A. Ferrara in New York Times, Real Estate Section, ARE OLD PEOPLE EXEMPT FROM RENT DEREGULATION?, September 25, 2008

By Jay Romano

Q.  I have been living in my rent-stabilized apartment for more than 30 years. When I become a senior citizen, will I still be subject to high-income rent deregulation, or do the laws provide special protections for seniors? (This is assuming that my rent will exceed $2,000 a month and that my income will exceed $175,000 two years in a row.)

A.  Lucas A. Ferrara, a Manhattan real estate lawyer and adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, said the “high-income, high-rent” process described by the writer requires that an apartment’s monthly legal regulated rent be $2,000 or more and that the household’s federal adjusted gross income (as reported on the occupants’ New York State income tax returns) exceed $175,000 for two calendar years preceding the landlord’s written request to the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal for the unit’s deregulation.

“Under current law, ‘senior citizens’ -- those 62 years of age or older -- or other long-term tenants are not exempt from this deregulation procedure,” he said.