Viral post spurs thousands to request rent histories in NYC
Carla Badami, 28, mostly posts on TikTok about fashion, makeup or what it’s like to be unemployed in New York City. But last month, she thought she would tell people the steps she took to get $6,000 back from her landlord and her rent reduced by hundreds of dollars.
All they needed to do was request some information from an obscure state housing agency. The advice resonated. Perhaps too well.
The video accumulated more than 4 million views. It prompted so many people to request their rent information that the agency, New York State Homes and Community Renewal, started telling people it might take 20 days to respond because of the “increased volume as a result of social media activity.”
Badami said recently that she was happy her video was useful, but that she also felt “really bad” for the agency. “They’re such helpful people,” she said. “And now I feel like they’re probably so overwhelmed.”
The housing agency enforces rent regulation laws in New York City. Requesting something called a “rent history” from the state — online, in person or by mail — is essentially the only way to figure out how much a landlord is legally supposed to be charging for a rent-stabilized apartment. It’s a system that even some landlords say is antiquated.
Brian Butry, a spokesperson for the agency, said that the state might get about 750 inquiries from tenants asking for their “rent histories” in a regular week. That number has grown to more than 2,000.
It’s not clear exactly why the video took off. Badami, who had about 4,000 followers before she posted it, describes herself as “just a regular person who lives in New York City” and likes TikTok.
But the video’s popularity in part taps into the intense feelings New Yorkers have about the high cost of living. The post also highlights the contrast between the ease and reach of social media and government systems that are often overburdened and antiquated.
In her video, Badami encourages people to first find out from the housing agency if their apartment is rent-stabilized. If it is, they should then request its “rent history,” a log showing the rent levels registered by the landlord every year.
Sometimes the rents that landlords register with the state do not match what they are charging renters. If tenants are paying more than what it is listed, they might be getting overcharged, and they should ask their landlords about the difference.
She said she opted to informally negotiate with her landlord instead of going to court. He ended up giving her around $6,000 back, and he reduced her rent to $1,468.
The system is frustrating to landlords, too, said Jay Martin, the executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, a trade group for owners of rent-stabilized buildings.
He said an error, sometimes made mistakenly or carelessly, could become a huge liability for a property owner if left unfixed for years.
“We’re in the 21st century,” he said. “There’s a technology fix in this somewhere.”
Badami said she learned about the agency from her aunt. Then she saw a post on TikTok encouraging people to get their rent histories from a company called Openigloo, which allows people to rate buildings and landlords. She included a few seconds of the company’s video in her own post.
Allia Mohamed, the co-founder and CEO of Openigloo, said Badami’s post also prompted hundreds of people to ask the company for help finding out if they were being overcharged. While she was pleased with the exposure, she said it also “got a bit overwhelming.”
“In a world of open data and transparency, there really should be a more accessible way to get access to this,” she said.