Rent Regulation

In New York City, Rent Control tenants are generally in buildings built before February 1, 1947, where the tenant is in continuous occupancy prior to July 1, 1971.
Tenants who took occupancy after June 30, 1971, in buildings of six or more units built before January 1, 1974, are generally Rent Stabilized.
New York City has a complex array of Rent Stabilization Laws and regulations. Generally, the only buildings covered by rent stabilization law are those built before 1974 that have 6 or more units. Newer buildings may qualify if the building has received certain tax benefits.
There is also a process where older buildings can also be deregulated, meaning they are no longer are legally rent-stabilized. The rent of a rent stabilized unit can only be raised a certain percentage every year and the tenant must be offered a lease renewal.

Additionally,this map lists all of the rent-stabilized properties derived from owner registrations with DHCR. The data comes with a few caveats: The rent stabilization data is slightly out-of-date because DHCR hasn’t updated their public information since 2012. The list is not 100% complete, so if determining the status is extremely critical, you will still have to contact DHCR. Additionally, not all the units inside the building are necessarily rent-stabilized. There is also a Brooklyn Wide version.

For more information about your status you can also visit: NY State Homes & Community Renewal

Vacant Land

This is land without a building. It can be vacant for any number of reasons. It may be owned by a utility company or the government for many reasons. It could be owned by an absentee owner, or an owner might be holding on it waiting for building permits or to re-sell it.

For more information about land use see the NYC Department of City Planning

F-A-R

F-A-R stands for Floor Area Ratio. It's a zoning regulation that determines the maximum floor area (total sq. feet) that a building is allowed to have. The F-A-R, combined with other regulations, limits how high and how many units a building may have.

Buildings can be built or renovated to contain up to the maximum allowable F-A-R 'as of right,' meaning they do not need special permission to do so. An owner with a property far below the maximum might decide to evict tenants and rebuild with more units in order to collect more rent.

For example:

For more Zoning information visit, NYC Department of City Planning's Zoning Glossary

ULURP

The New York City Charter requires certain actions that are reviewed by the City Planning Commission to undergo a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). ULURP is a standardized procedure whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed. The Charter also established mandated time frames within which application review must take place. Key participants in the ULURP process are now the Department of City Planning (DCP) and the City Planning Commission (CPC), Community Boards, the Borough Presidents, the Borough Boards, the City Council and the Mayor.

For more about the procedure check here.

DOB Violation

A DOB Violation is a notice that a property is not in compliance with some provision of applicable law and includes an order from the Commissioner of the Department of Buildings to correct the violating condition. The violation is entered against the property in the Department's Buildings Information System (BIS), and must be corrected before a new or amended Certificate of Occupancy (CO) can be obtained.

For more information see: NYC Buildings DOB

Some Additional Resources:

PLUTO:This is a released twice a year from the Department of City Planning. Besides city planning data, it also contains information from other agencies. You can gain access to it’s data on the DCP’s website.

ACRIS: Here you will find deed transactions as well as mortgage information directly from the Department of Finance. This is the best way find who is the owner of a building. Very often the owner is listed as a LLC or a company, but ACRIS will allow you to read the entire deed transfer documents, which can provide clues as to who the people are behind the companies.

Department of Buildings: Here you can look up an individual buildings and find all the complaints, permits, and applications. You can also search by community district.

HPD: HpdOnline, will allow you to look up active and past HPD complaints and violations on a property.