NY A02208

Requires the commissioner of housing and community renewal to distribute rent history for all units that were rent controlled or stabilized since 1971, along with literature explaining how to identify rent overcharges, available in multiple languages.

Removes the six-year statute of limitations for willful rent overcharges, allowing penalties of three times the overcharge amount to be assessed on all willfully collected overcharges occurring at any time before a complaint is filed.

Establishes new penalties of $2,000 per unit in buildings with fewer than 15 units and $5,000 per unit in buildings with 15 or more units for owners who fail to file timely or proper rent registration statements or supply rent history with leases; penalties paid to tenants as cash, check, or rent credit.

Requires owners to file supplemental registration statements within 90 days of rent increases and provide tenants with rent history literature and their unit's complete rent history with each lease.

Changes the legal regulated rent calculation to reference "prior" annual registration statements rather than "most recent reliable" statements, and modifies complaint filing procedures and deadlines for initial registrations.