Dear Friends,

ProPublica and the Brooklyn Public Library are hosting a FREE community forum on October 20 to empower New Yorkers who are potentially being charged too much for rent. Entitled “How to Fight Back if your Rent is Illegally High,” the event will inform tenants about the ways in which certain landlords are bypassing New York’s rent regulations. Through lifting up the stories of real New Yorkers who learned their legal rights and successfully pushed back, attendees will learn the steps they too can take.

While many New Yorkers think of high rent and steep rent hikes as unavoidable facts of living in the city, a recent ProPublica investigation found that tens of thousands of New Yorkers are unknowingly living in rent-stabilized apartments. These tenants are entitled to legal limits on their annual rent increases. If their rent has been raised past the legal limit, they can potentially get big refunds. But some landlords are betting that tenants lack the knowledge and resources to file a complaint or a lawsuit – and so they flagrantly break the rules on rent stabilization.

The forum will feature tenants, as well as community advocates who represent them, who fought back against New York City’s rent system.

Through this conversation moderated by ProPublica reporter Cezary Podkul, attendees can find out if they are being unlawfully charged too much, ways to learn their apartment’s rent history, when to file a complaint, pro bono legal resources they can tap, how to organize tenants in their building, and other practical action steps.

Click here to register for this free event, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 20, at the Brooklyn Public Library (10 Grand Army Plaza).

All the best,
Alex