After years of living in New York City, Erica Jenkins has gotten used to moving from one apartment to another.
“I’ve rented in all kinds of buildings,” she said. “Subletting in condos, co-ops – I think I lived in six apartments in New York City in 10 years.”
With each search, she got smarter, and eventually she adopted a core principle: “I’ve been bouncing around New York City forever looking for the perfect apartment, but we all know there’s no such thing as a perfect apartment,” she said. “Somehow you always have to give something up.”
But by the summer of 2025, Ms. Jenkins felt she had given up too much. Her apartment in Long Island City made her unhappy. “It wasn’t a good place to live,” she remembers. “It was on the ground floor, facing the street, super loud – I wasn’t happy. It was also a small studio.”
Studio apartments were all she had ever known and it felt like it was time to move on to something bigger. Ms. Jenkins has worked as a nurse for 15 years; She survived working in the intensive care unit at NYU Langone Health during the coronavirus crisis and earned a master’s degree in nursing administration in 2023 and became a nursing manager. Last summer, when she was unhappy in her small, noisy studio facing the street, a quiet one-room apartment didn’t seem like too much to ask for.
She started looking, even though moving would mean breaking her lease. She was willing to do this for the right place.
Although she lived in Queens, she began her search in Manhattan. “I spent most of my time in New York in Manhattan,” she said, “and I just kind of missed it.”
$1,519 | Upper East Side, Manhattan
Erica Jenkins, 34
Ms. Jenkins was guided by two key sources of wisdom in her home search: her past experiences and her TikTok feed. “I’ve learned a lot myself,” she said, “but during this last house hunt, I watched a lot of Allia Mohamed’s TikTok videos.”
Ms Mohamed is the co-founder and CEO of a company called Openigloo, which offers paid services to tenants to better understand their rights, potential buildings and landlords before they sign a lease.
“Allia puts out a lot of great content,” Ms. Jenkins said, “and through that I kind of learned a lot about rent stabilization laws and had an idea of what to look for in my apartment search.”
Last October, she found a rent-stabilized one-bedroom apartment through a StreetEasy search. For rent-stabilized apartments, rent rates and any annual increases are set by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. “This apartment was on the Upper East Side, which I always loved,” she said. “I lived there for two years, so I knew it was a good neighborhood.”
Not only was the rent stabilized, but it was also newly renovated. “Everything was brand new and I really liked it,” she said. “It was actually on the same block as my very first New York apartment in my 20s, so it felt like I had come full circle.”
Ms. Jenkins submitted her application the same day she inspected the site and received approval just days later. Before signing the lease, she paused to reconsider the decision. “I look at the lease and it says ‘Rent Stabilized’ at the top,” she remembers, “and I was just thinking about it. I didn’t want to make a hasty decision. Again, it felt like I was breaking a lease on this apartment.”
The rent was just under $3,600, a little more than Ms. Jenkins was comfortable paying. So at the last minute she asked for a payment of $3,400, which was more in line with her budget. The landlord agreed and Ms. Jenkins signed an amended lease for the lesser amount.
Last October she moved into her first one-bedroom apartment with lots of light on an upper floor, away from the noise of the street. “I really liked the place,” she said. “It felt right.”
Even so, something about the rent level still didn’t feel quite right. It seemed too high for a rent-stabilized unit. “I learned from Openigloo that you can request DHCR rental history immediately,” Ms. Jenkins said.
The Department of Housing and Community Renewal is a government agency that can provide a rental history for an apartment at the request of the tenant. This history provides details about whether a unit is intended for a specific program, such as: B. Rent stabilization, as well as information about previous rent prices and increases over the years. All of this information is important to confirm that a unit is being rented for a legal amount.
“As soon as I got those keys,” Ms. Jenkins said, “I requested the medical history.”
She shared her rental history with Openigloo and wanted a second set of eyes to confirm her suspicions.
“We always encourage tenants to find out whether their apartment’s rent is stabilized and, if so, what that means for them,” Ms Mohamed said. “We took a look at Erica’s rental history and almost immediately realized something was wrong.”
The details of Ms. Jenkins’ apartment revealed that her rent was almost three times what the previous tenant had paid. “I know they can increase the rent after the renovation,” she said, “but it went from about $1,100 to $3,400.”
She felt like she had three options. “I could file a rent overpayment complaint with DHCR,” she said. “I could contact a lawyer or just talk to my landlord and try to figure it out.”
Ms. Jenkins initially chose to address the matter directly with her landlord, sending him a letter in November 2025.
She received a response right after Thanksgiving.
“I was visiting my family and received an email from my landlord’s assistant with the subject line “Urgent: Error in your favor.” I called my landlord and he said, “You’ll never believe this. I made a mistake. I’ve never made a mistake like this in 25 years, but the situation is this: You’ll be really happy with your new rent. It should be closer to $1,500. I’m so sorry.” He tried to be very, very nice. In the end he was really nice. He says, “Live there as long as you want.” I love nurses.’”
Ms. Jenkins is now paying less than half of what she originally expected for the apartment. After giving something up for every place she’s lived, she finally found an apartment that gave something back.
“I’m grateful that I know about the rent stabilization laws, that I’m guaranteed an extension and that I have this affordable rent. It’s changing my life,” she said. “I’ve always moved, every year or two, but I’ll be here for a while. A long time.”