Please read the following before using and downloading the 2010-11 Vacancy Lease Calculator

With the passage of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 the task of computing the rent on a vacancy lease suddenly became much more complicated. In previous years the Rent Guidelines Board usually passed an across-the-board percentage increase, which was easy to apply. Under the current law the amount of the rent increase depends upon whether the tenant chooses a one or two year lease, the previous rent amount (bonuses being awarded to "low rent" units) and the number of years the previous tenant was in the apartment. In some cases the vacancy increase can be computed in two ways and the owner can choose the higher of the two methods.

Please note that this vacancy calculator reflects the vacancy allowances that are in effect for the period from Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011. The vacancy allowances for one- and two-year vacancy leases are 17.75% and 20% respectively. This calculator should only be used to calculate vacancy lease rents commencing between Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011.

The 1997 Rent Regulation Reform Act set the TWO-year vacancy allowance at 20%. The ONE-year vacancy allowance is determined by taking the difference between the one- and two-year RENEWAL lease guidelines and then subtracting that difference from the 20% two-year vacancy allowance. The difference between these two guidelines (in effect from Oct. 1, 2010 through Sept. 30, 2011) is 2.25%. You then subtract the 2.25% from the two-year vacancy allowance (20% - 2.25% = 17.75%). The result is the one-year vacancy allowance of 17.75%.

The Rent Guidelines Board Vacancy Calculator is a simple spreadsheet application which quickly computes the MAXIMUM increase allowed under the current law. It makes the task of computing a vacancy rent fairly simple. Landlords can compute vacancy rents for new tenants and these tenants can use this calculator to judge the accuracy of their vacancy rent.

The Vacancy Calculator can be downloaded. It is a Microsoft Excel file which can be opened using Excel versions 97 or later.

Before using or downloading the application, you must agree to the following:

• The Rent Guidelines Board is not the agency responsible for administering the rent stabilization laws. This task is performed by the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). Ultimately, it is DHCR which decides whether a vacancy rent has been computed correctly.
• It is the responsibility of any party downloading the Vacancy Calculator to test its calculations and determine definitively that the calculator correctly computes vacancy rents according to the provisions of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 and other applicable rules and regulations before using the calculator to compute legal rents.
• The Rent Guidelines Board is not responsible for any miscalculations of vacancy lease rents. The responsibility of correctly computing a vacancy lease rent lies solely with the owner of the apartment unit.
• All users of the calculator agree to monitor any changes or modifications in the Rent Regulation Reform Act which are made by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) or by New York State, or which result from any legal action, and to stop using the calculator should these changes alter the current known procedures for calculating a vacancy lease rent.
• Under no circumstances should the calculator be used for calculating the vacancy lease rent for a lease beginning before October 1, 2010 OR after September 30, 2011.
• Additional assistance calculating vacancy leases is available by contacting the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) at 212-961-8930 or 718-739-6400.
• You will not redistribute the Vacancy Lease Calculator without the permission of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. You are free to refer users to the RGB web site and to this web page so they can download the application.

Clicking on "I Agree" below begins the download process.

After downloading and saving the file, open the file in Microsoft Excel (or similar spreadsheet application).

Instructions for Using the Rent Guidelines Board Vacancy Calculator

An important note
Please note that this vacancy calculator reflects the vacancy allowances that are in effect between Oct. 1, 2010 and Sept. 30, 2011. The vacancy allowances for one- and two-year vacancy leases are 17.75% and 20%, respectively. The 1997 Rent Regulation Reform Act set the TWO-year vacancy allowance at 20%. The ONE-year vacancy allowance is determined by taking the difference between the one- and two-year RENEWAL lease guidelines (2.25%) and then subtracting that difference from the 20% two-year vacancy allowance.

This program can be used only so long as 1) The state legislature leaves the rent regulation laws unchanged; 2) The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) or the Courts do not amend or "clarify" the laws in any major respect; and 3) The Rent Guidelines Board does not enact new guidelines. In no case should this calculator be used for leases commencing on or BEFORE September 30, 2010 or on or AFTER October 1, 2011.

If you have any further questions or if you are having trouble calculating the new vacancy lease rent you should contact the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) at 212-961- 8930 or 718-739-6400.

Step 1a - Previous tenant's move in date
"When did the previous tenant first occupy the apartment?"

• Enter the date the previous tenant first occupied the apartment (more specifically, the last vacancy lease date) or the date the unit first became subject to rent stabilization, whichever is more recent.
• If you do not know the exact date, but are fairly certain of the month and year, you can enter this more general information; for instance "July 06" will register as July 1, 2006.
• If the previous tenant has not been in the apartment 8 years or more you do not have to enter a date at all. In this case the program will calculate the proper maximum rent which can be charged without a date.
• If the previous tenant HAS been in the apartment 8 years or more and you don't know the date he/she moved in, leaving this field blank means there will be no percentage increase reflecting the "longevity provisions" of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 (i.e. the 0.6% increase per year for each year the tenant has lived in the apartment for 8 years or more).

Step 1b - Last legal stabilized rent
• Enter the legal rent amount. This amount should NOT include any temporary MCI increases or temporary surcharges (e.g., air conditioner surcharges, window guard surcharges, etc.)

Step 2 - Information on the new lease
• Enter the date the new lease will begin and whether the lease will be for one or two years.

Step 3 - Individual Apartment Improvements
• Enter the TOTAL value of all ELIGIBLE individual apartment improvements. For instance, if a new refrigerator costing $500 was installed, enter $500.
• The program automatically divides your entry by 40 and adds it to the maximum rent which can be charged. Thus, in the above example (i.e., $500 refrigerator), $12.50 is added to the rent.
• ONLY include apartment improvements which become part of the apartment's base rent. Do not add any temporary charges or surcharges (these should be entered in the "Step 5" Box)

Step 4 - Major Capital Improvements (MCI)
• Enter any PERMANENT monthly MCI charges which commence with the beginning of the lease.
• The charges should be entered in dollars per month.
• Do NOT include temporary MCI charges here. Temporary MCI charges (i.e., surcharges) should be entered in the box for "Step 5"

Step 5 - Temporary Charges and Surcharges
• Enter any monthly charges which do NOT become a part of the permanent legal rent such as air conditioner charges, temporary MCI charges, and window guard charges.
• The figure entered should be dollars per month.

Maximum Rent which can be charged/Calculated Rent
• The program calculates the maximum rent the landlord can charge, given the entries in Steps 1 - 5 shown above. Note that this is NOT necessarily the same as the legal "base" rent for the unit, if the maximum includes temporary surcharges.
• If the program returns a rent of $2000 or more, this rent is called the "calculated rent" by the program. In this case the unit may be deregulated according to the luxury decontrol provisions of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 and the landlord can charge more or less than this "calculated rent."
• The program does NOT include a provision for adding the yearly percentage increase for units subject to the 421a program. For these units the extra 421a amount must be added to the "bottom line" maximum rent to get the proper rent figure.

Number of Years Occupied
• This field returns the number of years the unit was occupied by the previous tenant (more specifically, the number of years between the beginning of the previous and current lease).
• The figure returned is in COMPLETE years. If the actual amount of time was 3.7 years, the program truncates this figure to 3 years.
• In calculating the maximum rent the program uses COMPLETE years. Thus, if the unit was occupied 10.6 years, the "longevity bonus" is 10 x 0.6, or 6%.

Total Rent Increase
• This field simply divides the maximum rent which can be charged (or the "calculated rent") by the previous rent and computes a percentage.
• The total rent increase includes individual apartment increases, permanent MCIs, and any surcharges.

Bonus from Longevity Provisions
• This field indicates whether the MAXIMUM rent is affected by the longevity provisions of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997.
• In some cases the owner of the unit may be ELIGIBLE to take advantage of the longevity provisions of the Act but these provisions do not in fact help the owner. For instance, if the rent is $350 and the previous tenant has been in the apartment for 17 years this field will return "No" because the owner is better off taking the minimum $100 charge than the longevity charge (which would yield a rent of only $448.70 with a one year lease).

Bonus from Low Rent Provisions
• This field indicates that the previous rent was $500 or less AND the owner benefited either from the $100 bonus for units renting from $300 OR from the minimum rent increase of $100 for units renting from $300 to $500. In some cases owners of low rent units might not benefit from these provisions. For example, if the previous rent was $450 and the tenant had been in the apartment 10 years, the owner is entitled to a maximum of $558, or $8 higher than the minimum $100 increase. In this case this field will return "No." For units with a previous rent of less than $300, the field will ALWAYS return "Yes" since $100 can always be added to the rent on top of other provisions of the Act.

In addition
The Rent Guidelines Board is not the agency responsible for administering the rent stabilization laws. This task is performed by the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). Ultimately, it is DHCR which decides whether a vacancy rent has been computed correctly.

It is the responsibility of any party downloading the Vacancy Calculator to test its calculations and determine definitively that the calculator correctly computes vacancy rents according to the provisions of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 and other applicable rules and regulations before using the calculator to compute legal rents.

The Rent Guidelines Board is not responsible for any miscalculations of vacancy lease rents. The responsibility of correctly computing a vacancy lease rent lies solely with the owner of the apartment unit.

All users of the calculator agree to monitor any changes or modifications in the Rent Regulation Reform Act which are made by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) or by New York State, or which result from any legal action, and to stop using the calculator should these changes alter the current known procedures for calculating a vacancy lease rent.

You are not permitted to redistribute the Vacancy Lease Calculator without the permission of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. You are free to refer users to the RGB web site and to this web page so they can download the application: http://www.housingnyc.com/html/guidelines/vacancy.html

Updated 8/4/2010