The five ways a property is exempt

The five qualifying relationships

Each one below is a complete answer on its own. Open the one that describes your unit.

The tenant path, precisely

A tenant or subtenant must be a natural person; an LLC as tenant cannot establish primary residency. There is no one-year-lease requirement, and the final rule added documentation pathways for renters under month-to-month leases or subleases and for spouses of owners. A lease is not treated as arm's length if circumstances indicate a reasonable possibility it was entered into primarily to avoid the surcharge.

Entities and trusts

Entity-owned units qualify through one or more individuals who collectively hold a majority interest in the LLC, corporation, or partnership and use the unit as a primary residence. The final rule allows multiple individuals to be, collectively, the sole current beneficiaries of a trust, and contingent or future interests do not automatically disqualify. Multi-tier entity structures cannot establish primary residence, which is the trap for units held through stacked entities.

Death, hospital, rehab

The rule deems an individual's primary residency to continue for one year immediately following death, and during a continuous hospitalization or a temporary nursing home or rehabilitation stay, with proof of the event and of the prior residency. A unit does not lose its exemption because its resident spent the status date in a hospital bed.

What the Department of Finance accepts

• The most recent federal or state income tax return showing the address, or two of: driver's license, voter registration, utility or similar bills.
• Marriage or birth certificates, or affidavits, where the qualifying person is an immediate family member.
• The lease plus the tenant's own residency documents, for the tenant path.
• Organizational documents plus an officer or trustee affidavit, for entities and trusts.

The mechanics of actually filing, the portal, the security code, and the deadline on your notice, are on how to respond. The background on what the notice itself means is on the notice, explained, and the short answers live in the FAQ.

Not sure which criterion fits?

Start with the number the city is using: see what the Department of Finance says your property is worth, free and without signing in. If the record already shows a primary resident relationship, the response is about documenting it; if the value itself looks wrong, that is a different path with its own deadline. For an ownership structure with any complexity, an LLC, a trust, family members in residence, call 212-343-1111 and we will identify the criterion with you.