To file a DHCR housing complaint, choose the form that matches your problem, assemble your rent history and supporting documents, and submit the package free of charge either online through Rent Connect or by certified mail to the Office of Rent Administration in Jamaica, Queens. The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal handles disputes involving rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments, and the process is the same whether you’re challenging an overcharge, reporting a lost service, or forcing a lease renewal. There is no filing fee.
Pick the Form That Matches Your Problem
Getting the form number right matters. ORA can reject a filing outright if it’s on the wrong form, and a rejection means starting the clock over. The forms tenants use most often are:
- RA-89 if your landlord is charging more than the legal regulated rent. Overcharge filings require you to submit all supporting documentation at the time you file — leases, canceled checks, rent receipts.1Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant’s Complaint of Rent and/or Other Specific Overcharges in a Rent Stabilized Apartment
- RA-90 if your landlord hasn’t offered a renewal lease inside the required window. In New York City, the owner must deliver the offer no more than 150 days and no fewer than 90 days before the current lease expires. Outside the city, the window is 90 to 120 days, and the notice must go by certified mail.2Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant/Owner Forms3Homes and Community Renewal. Leases (Security Deposits, Roommates, Sublets, and More)
- RA-81 for problems inside your own apartment — no heat, broken fixtures, unmade repairs.4Homes and Community Renewal. Living Conditions and Essential Services
- RA-84 for problems that affect the whole building, such as a broken elevator, loss of hot water throughout the building, or discontinued security services. A single tenant or a tenant representative can file it.5New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Fact Sheet 14 – Rent Reductions for Decreased Services
- RA-60H if the landlord is engaged in conduct designed to force you out — repeated frivolous court filings, cut services, threatening behavior. This one goes to ORA’s Enforcement Unit, and a finding of harassment can produce a civil penalty against the owner.6Homes and Community Renewal. Harassment
- RA-23.5 to notify the owner that a family member living in the apartment may take over the lease if the named tenant dies or permanently leaves. The co-occupancy minimum is two years, or one year if the family member is a senior citizen or disabled.7Homes and Community Renewal. Succession
If you’re on the owner’s side of a rent increase application — an MCI or IAI — that runs through a different set of forms and the ORRA system, not the tenant complaint process described here.
Gather Your Documents First
DHCR examiners decide cases on documentation, not argument. For overcharge complaints, all supporting evidence has to arrive with the initial filing, so pull everything together before you open the form.
Your Rent History
The single most important document is your apartment’s rent history — the record DHCR keeps of the registered rent for each period. Request it online through Rent Connect at rent.hcr.ny.gov, or submit Form REC-1 (Request for Records Access) by email to ORArecords@hcr.ny.gov or by mail to the Records Access Unit at 92-31 Union Hall Street, 6th Floor, Jamaica, NY 11433. Attach proof of identity and occupancy; a copy of your lease or a rent receipt is enough for a rent-stabilized tenant.8Homes and Community Renewal. Records Access
What Else You’ll Need
Beyond the rent history, what you attach depends on the complaint:
- For overcharge complaints on RA-89: every lease and lease rider you’ve signed, canceled checks or bank statements showing rent payments, any written consents for individual apartment improvements, and court decisions related to the apartment.1Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant’s Complaint of Rent and/or Other Specific Overcharges in a Rent Stabilized Apartment
- For service reductions on RA-81 or RA-84: dated photographs of the condition, utility bills showing service interruptions, and any written maintenance requests along with proof of delivery.
- For lease renewal complaints on RA-90: your current lease showing the expiration date, and any correspondence with the landlord about renewal.
Keep a running file of everything you send to and receive from the landlord or management company. Written notices, emails, and delivery receipts all establish a timeline.
Filling Out the Form Without Getting Rejected
Every DHCR form starts with the same identifying block. Small errors here — a wrong apartment number, a misspelled owner name, the wrong building address — can kill a filing before an examiner reads the substance.
Enter the building address exactly as it appears on the official DHCR registration, including the apartment number. For NYC buildings, include the borough. The owner’s name should be the legal entity that owns the building, usually an LLC, not the management company or the superintendent. The rent history you requested will list the registered owner if you’re not sure.
The Statement of Complaint section is where most filers overshoot or undershoot. Stick to facts: specific dates, specific dollar amounts, what the landlord did or failed to do. For an overcharge, you don’t have to calculate the exact amount owed — that’s the examiner’s job — but you should identify where the numbers stop making sense. Skip the personal grievances; examiners process thousands of these and will move past anything that isn’t factual.
For overcharge filings, the “base date” is the anchor DHCR uses to determine the legal regulated rent. Under the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, the base date is generally six years before the overcharge proceeding is filed. If the owner failed to keep required records, DHCR can look back further and use all available rent history reasonably necessary to determine the lawful rent.9Cornell Law Institute. New York Comp Codes R and Regs Tit 9 2526.1 – Determination of Legal Regulated Rents, Penalties, Fines, Assessment of Costs, Attorney’s Fees, Rent Credits
Complete every field or mark it clearly as not applicable. A blank field reads as an oversight and can get the form kicked back.
Submitting the Form
Online Through Rent Connect
Rent Connect at rent.hcr.ny.gov lets you file complaints, upload documents, report overcharges, and respond to open cases. You can also request a rent history and track a pending case with your docket number. If you’re still uncertain which form fits, the Rent Connect Assistant walks you through the selection.10Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant Resources
By Mail
Paper filings go to the Office of Rent Administration at 92-31 Union Hall Street, Jamaica, NY 11433. Use certified mail with return receipt requested; the postmark date proves when you filed, which matters if a deadline is in play. Most fillable PDFs on DHCR’s website still require an original, written signature, so an e-signed form emailed in won’t be accepted.2Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant/Owner Forms
What Happens After You File
DHCR assigns a docket number once it receives your form, and that number is the reference for everything that follows. An examiner reviews the filing, and if it states a valid claim, serves a copy of the complaint on the opposing party along with a notice starting the administrative proceeding. The other side gets a chance to respond before the examiner decides.
You can track the case with your docket number through DHCR’s self-service applications page. Watch it closely. If the examiner asks for supplemental information and you miss the deadline, the case can stall or be decided without your input.10Homes and Community Renewal. Tenant Resources
Timelines vary. Straightforward service complaints move faster than overcharge cases, which can take well over a year. There’s no formal way to expedite a case; filing a complete application with all documentation upfront is the way to avoid the most common source of delay.
What the Owner Owes If You Win
If DHCR finds the owner collected rent above the legal regulated amount, the owner must pay you a penalty. For a willful overcharge, that’s three times the excess rent collected. If the owner proves the overcharge wasn’t willful, the penalty drops to the overcharge amount plus interest.9Cornell Law Institute. New York Comp Codes R and Regs Tit 9 2526.1 – Determination of Legal Regulated Rents, Penalties, Fines, Assessment of Costs, Attorney’s Fees, Rent Credits
An owner who fails to register rent-stabilized units faces a separate penalty of $500 per unregistered apartment for each month the registration is delinquent. Beyond the fine, an unregistered owner cannot collect any rent increase above the base date rent until registration is completed.11Homes and Community Renewal. Rent Registration
The refund itself is generally a return of money you shouldn’t have paid, not taxable income. Interest paid on top of the refund is different; the IRS treats interest received with damage awards as taxable and expects you to report it on your federal return even if the landlord doesn’t send a Form 1099-INT.12Internal Revenue Service. Interest Received
If You Disagree With the Decision
The first step to challenge a Rent Administrator’s order is a Petition for Administrative Review (PAR) using Form RAR-2. The deadline is 35 days from the date the order was issued, not the date you received it, and there are no extensions.13Homes and Community Renewal. Appealing an Order
File the PAR in person or by mail at the Gertz Plaza address, 92-31 Union Hall Street, Jamaica, NY 11433. Attach a copy of the order and identify the specific legal or factual errors you believe the Rent Administrator made. A mailed PAR must be postmarked within the 35-day window.13Homes and Community Renewal. Appealing an Order
If the PAR decision still doesn’t resolve it, the next step is an Article 78 proceeding in New York State Supreme Court, which is judicial review of the agency’s decision. You have four months to file. At that stage the process follows court rules rather than DHCR’s, and hiring an attorney is worth serious consideration.