The great Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso, suggested you “learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” With the recent passing of good cause eviction (GCE) in NYC, landlords should find their inner artist and paint the town red identifying a relevant GCE exemption. And one exists and it’s glaring.
Getting an Exemption
If an owner has received a temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy (C/O) after January 1, 2009, a thirty (30) year exemption from the GCE rules applies. And how do you achieve a new C/O for your existing property? The answer: through an Alt 1 (now Alt CO) permit when there is a change to the use, occupancy or egress of the building.
There are many alterations that fall under an Alt 1 but arguably the most relevant for multi-family owner/operators would be to increase the number of apartments in a residential building (i.e., subdividing units) or adding a roof deck to the property in certain cases.
If I were an owner of apartment buildings in NYC with free market tenants, I would be on the phone with my architect asap seeking ways to legally and ethically apply for an Alt 1 that would allow me to obtain a new C/O exempting my property from the GCE restrictions on rent increases.
No doubt the process is more involved than I let on but certainly worth exploring.
Someone much more famous than me—with whom I concur—once said, “if you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”
Go have some fun.
Leave a Comment