Removal from Jurisdiction

Once an owner is issued a residential certificate of occupancy from the New York City Department of Buildings, the owner must apply for removal from the Loft Board's jurisdiction. The issuance of the certificate of occupancy does not automatically remove the building from the Loft Board's jurisdiction. The Loft Board must issue a removal order. The most important consideration regarding the removal application is the Loft Board's determination of the initial legal rent for all of the IMD units in the building.

Tenant Occupied Units. If the IMD units are occupied by tenants, the owner may file a Notice of Rent Guidelines Board Increase Form (RGB Notice), which indicates the owner's intent to collect the RGB rent increases applicable to each IMD unit. Affected parties have forty-five (45) days to respond to the RGB Notice by filing a Tenant Response Form.

If an owner does not file the RGB Notice, the owner will not be entitled to the RGB rent increases, but the owner may file other information indicating the current rent of each IMD unit. The IMD tenants must confirm in writing the rent alleged by the owner. Once the Loft Board has sufficient information to determine the initial legal rent for each IMD unit, the removal application will be processed, resulting in a final order of removal from the Loft Board's jurisdiction. The order will direct the owner to register the building with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The former IMD units will become rent stabilized units.

Owner-occupied Units. If a building has been converted into cooperative or condominium ownership and if any of the IMD units are owner-occupied, the cooperative or condominium association must file a Co-op/Condominium Exemption Form with the Loft Board to establish that the owner-occupied units are not being rented. These units will be exempt from rent regulation. Consequently, the Loft Board will not set an initial legal regulated rent for these owner-occupied units.

The Co-op/Condominium Exemption Form should be filed with the first two-pages and the filing number of the offering plan that was submitted to the New York State Attorney General's office for the building's ownership conversion. If an offering plan does not exist, a no-action letter from the New York State Attorney General's office is required before the removal application will be processed.

Where a building has been converted into cooperative or condominium ownership, but some of the IMD units are not owner-occupied, (i.e. some of the unit(s) are being rented), the owner of each tenant-occupied IMD unit must follow the procedures outlined above for tenant-occupied IMD units and the co-op/condominium association must follow the procedures outlined above for owner-occupied units. The Loft Board will establish the initial legal regulated rent for the tenant-occupied units and exempt from rent regulation the owner-occupied units.

A building that has not been issued a residential Certificate of Occupancy may be removed from the jurisdiction of the Loft Board if 1) the rights to the IMD unit have been sold to the owner, or the improvements to the IMD unit have been sold to the owner (with some exceptions), or the IMD units have been declared abandoned by a Loft Board order, AND 2) the owner has filed a Declaration of Intent form for each IMD unit indicating the owner's intent to convert all of the IMD units in the building back to commercial use. The procedures and requirements regarding sales of rights to an IMD unit are governed by Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) § 286(12) and § 2-10 of the Loft Board's rules. The procedures and requirements regarding sales of improvements made to IMD units are governed by Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) § 286(6) and § 2-07 of the Loft Board's rules. Section 2-10(f) governs the procedures for applications seeking a finding of abandonment for an IMD unit.

Removal from Jurisdiction

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