Apartments that the law treats as rent stabilized, but that landlords have been renting at market prices, are being pulled back under the rules by the New York Attorney General’s office. Its running tally since May 2025 stands at 131 units returned to rent stabilization, 27 evictions prevented and 30 landlords who certified compliance. The newest case is a three-unit Brooklyn building, and it shows what a tenant in a similar position can expect from the process.
The attorney general’s own tally: 131 units since May 2025
The figure comes straight from the Attorney General’s office. In a September 28, 2026 press release, the office says that since its de facto rent stabilization compliance program launched in May 2025, it “has successfully prevented 27 evictions and secured the return of 131 units to rent stabilization.” A second passage in the same release adds that 30 landlords were compelled to certify that they complied with the program, which produced those 131 units.
That makes 131 a cumulative, citywide, program-to-date number covering all 30 landlords, not the result of a single building or a single settlement. The mechanism is the return of units to rent stabilization: landlords register the legal regulated rent, issue rent-stabilized leases and certify under oath that they did so. The release names Attorney General Letitia James as the official behind the program and Assistant Attorney General Justin La Mort of the Housing Protection Unit as the lawyer on the Brooklyn case. “New York City’s rent stabilization laws are clear, and my office will not hesitate to enforce them,” James said in the release.
What “de facto” rent stabilization means for a small building
The program rests on a court-made rule. The Attorney General’s June 16, 2026 announcement of the first lawsuits under the program describes it as “a judicial doctrine to allow buildings with five or fewer units built before 1974 to become rent stabilized if the building was altered – legally or illegally – to have six or more units.” A small, older building that was carved into additional apartments can therefore fall under stabilization even though its owner never registered it that way.
The same release says the office began by sending letters to more than 50 New York City landlords. Compliance meant registering the legal regulated rent with the state housing agency, issuing rent-stabilized leases at the proper rates, notifying tenants of their stabilized status and providing a sworn certification to the Attorney General. Landlords who ignored the letters were the target of the lawsuits that followed, which sought penalties of $500 per unit per month for failure to register and $2,000 to $10,000 per person for harassment.
1075 Dean Street: a three-unit building and a one-year probation
The September release says the Attorney General’s office sent the first of several compliance letters to Brooklyn landlord John Anderson in August 2025. The June 2026 lawsuit announcement named Anderson, the owner of 1075 Dean Street, as one of the first two defendants. The case ended in a settlement with Anderson and his company, 921 Fulton St Corp.
The settlement agreement covers a building with three rental units. Under its terms, the respondents must register all units with the state housing agency within 90 days and register the building with the city’s housing department within 30 days. Rent-stabilized leases and riders must go to all tenants within 120 days, and the owners must pay the $20 annual stabilization fee per unit to the New York City Department of Finance. Hazardous conditions identified under the Housing Code must be corrected within 180 days, and any rent overcharge, “if any,” is to be paid to tenants within 180 days.
The financial penalties are modest on paper. The respondents owe $1,000 to the State of New York for the cost of the litigation, and a $49,500 penalty is suspended for one year, becoming due only if the owners fail to comply during that period. The Attorney General’s release does not disclose a restitution or overcharge figure for the tenants of 1075 Dean Street, so the dollar value of the case to those households is not stated in any public document read for this report.
From 91 units in June to 131 in September
The two releases allow a direct comparison of the program’s pace. The June announcement reported 26 evictions prevented, 91 units returned to rent stabilization and 21 landlords who had provided compliance certification. The September release reports 27 evictions prevented, 131 units and 30 landlords. Between the two announcements, in other words, the office reports 40 more units returned and nine more certifying landlords, while the eviction figure moved by one.
Both releases attribute the numbers to the Attorney General’s office itself, and neither describes the totals as estimates. They are also totals for compliance reached, not for money recovered, which is why the September release can announce a settlement without any refund amount attached.
Overcharge complaints and rent history at the state housing agency
A tenant who suspects a unit should be stabilized, or who believes a stabilized rent has been exceeded, has a separate route through the state agency Homes and Community Renewal. Its rent overcharge page says tenants can file a complaint on Form RA-89 for rent-stabilized apartments, and that “rent stabilized tenants may also file an overcharge complaint online through Rent Connect.” The same page says tenants can request a rent history for their apartment and review it.
The agency’s RA-89 form page describes the document as a “Tenant’s Complaint of Rent and/or Other Specific Overcharges in a Rent Stabilized Apartment,” open to prime tenants, subtenants and roommates. It directs filers to submit two copies with supporting documents such as leases, cancelled checks and receipts, warns that an incomplete complaint will be returned, and says a computer printout of the registration history covering the past six years can be requested through the agency’s contact page.
For complaints about a landlord’s refusal to register or to recognize stabilization, the September release lists the Attorney General’s office lists 1-800-771-7755, 1-800-788-9898 for deaf and hard-of-hearing callers, and the online complaint form at ag.ny.gov/file-complaint. The 131 units, 27 evictions and 30 landlords are the figures the Attorney General’s office reports for the period from May 2025 through its September 28, 2026 announcement.
Housing costs beyond the lease itself
Rent is only one line in a household’s housing costs, and tenants in New York and elsewhere often carry property-tax-related and home-energy expenses that sit outside any stabilization case. Those costs run on their own applications and renewal dates, separate from anything the Attorney General’s program decides.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, along with an application log and renewal calendar for keeping track of each filing.
This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the figures were checked against the New York Attorney General’s September 28 and June 16, 2026 releases, the Anderson settlement agreement and the Homes and Community Renewal overcharge pages.
