§ 610. Rental assistance and legal regulated rents. 1. (a)
Notwithstanding the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen
seventy-four or the rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred
sixty-nine, any regulation promulgated pursuant to such act or law, or
any other provision of law, where a housing accommodation is subject to
a regulatory agreement with a state or municipal agency or public
benefit corporation, or a political subdivision of the state, and where
a federal, state, or local program provides rental assistance for such
housing accommodation, such state or municipal agency or public benefit
corporation, or political subdivision of the state, may allow in such
regulatory agreement the owner of such housing accommodation to charge
and collect a rent for such housing accommodation that (i) does not
exceed the maximum payment standard or contract rent that the rental
assistance program may provide for such housing accommodation, but (ii)
does exceed the legal regulated rent for the housing accommodation.

(b) If any such rental assistance ends upon the vacancy of the housing
accommodation, the owner of such housing accommodation shall thereafter
charge and collect a rent for such housing accommodation that does not
exceed the lesser of (i) the previously established legal regulated rent
for such housing accommodation, as adjusted by the most recent
applicable guidelines increases approved by a rent guidelines board
established pursuant to the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen
seventy-four and any other increases authorized by law, regardless of
when the previously established legal regulated rent was last charged,
and (ii) any lower rent that is required by such regulatory agreement.

(c) If any such rental assistance ends during a tenancy, including,
but not limited to, upon the renewal of a lease, the owner of such
housing accommodation shall thereafter charge and collect a rent for
such housing accommodation that does not exceed the lesser of (i) the
previously established legal regulated rent for such housing
accommodation, as adjusted by the most recent applicable guidelines
increases approved by a rent guidelines board established pursuant to
the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four and any
other increases authorized by law, regardless of when the previously
established legal regulated rent was last charged, (ii) any rent charged
to and paid by the tenant immediately prior to the commencement of the
rental assistance that was less than the legal regulated rent for such
housing accommodation, as adjusted by such most recent applicable
guidelines increases and any other increases authorized by law, and
(iii) any lower rent that is required by such regulatory agreement.

2. Any rent charged pursuant to subdivision one of this section in
excess of the legal regulated rent for a housing accommodation shall not
be registered as the legal regulated rent pursuant to the emergency
tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four or the rent stabilization
law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine. The owner of such housing
accommodation shall continue to register the legal regulated rent and
any preferential rent calculated according to applicable guidelines
increases applied to the previously established legal regulated rent or
preferential rent, respectively, and separately register the actual rent
charged to the tenant pursuant to subdivision one of this section.

3. Where the owner of a housing accommodation charges and collects a
rent that exceeds the legal regulated rent for such housing
accommodation pursuant to subdivision one of this section, such owner
shall provide every tenant of such housing accommodation with a notice,
attached to the initial lease and all renewal leases, advising the
tenant in plain language that if such tenant ceases to receive the
rental assistance described in subdivision one of this section for any
reason, the rent for such housing accommodation shall be the legal
regulated rent, or any lower rent as required by subdivision one of this
section. The owner shall disclose any applicable regulatory agreement
and the applicability of this section in any legal proceeding brought
against a tenant whose rent is governed by this section.

4. An owner of a housing accommodation who fails to adjust a rent upon
the termination of any such rental assistance as required by subdivision
one of this section shall refund to the tenant the amount of the
overcharge and be liable for treble damages. The tenant shall have the
right to recover such overcharges and damages from the date of their
accrual, notwithstanding any statute of limitations set forth in the
emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four or the rent
stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine. The tenant may raise
such an overcharge as a claim or defense in any court of appropriate
jurisdiction, or in a proceeding at the division of housing and
community renewal, pursuant to the emergency tenant protection act of
nineteen seventy-four or the rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred
sixty-nine.

5. Where a regulatory agreement allows an owner of a housing
accommodation to charge and collect a rent for the housing accommodation
that exceeds the legal regulated rent for such housing accommodation in
accordance with subdivision one of this section, the state or municipal
agency or public benefit corporation, or political subdivision of the
state, that has executed the regulatory agreement shall audit such
owner's records at least once every three years to verify that such
owner is complying with the provisions of this section.