DHCR Change of Ownership or Address: When To File RA-44

What RA-44 Is

RA-44 is HCR's report of change in ownership or address. The form is used when there has been a change in the owner or managing agent, or a change in address for the owner or managing agent, for a rent-regulated building.

The form asks for building information, registration numbers, the type of entity involved, the date of the reported change, former owner or managing-agent information, new owner or managing-agent information, mailing-address information where applicable, and an affirmation from the filer.

That makes RA-44 more than a contact-update form. It is a transition record. If the owner, managing agent, address, building registration number, or related records are wrong, the problem can surface later in annual registration, tenant communication, open case handling, lease package work, or internal reporting.

When Owners Should Review RA-44

Owners should review RA-44 whenever ownership, managing-agent responsibility, or owner/managing-agent address information changes. HCR's form references Rent Stabilization Code Section 2523.8 and Emergency Tenant Protection Regulations Section 2503.8, and it states that those changes should be reported within 30 days of the event.

The practical takeaway is simple: RA-44 review should be part of portfolio-transition onboarding. If a building is acquired, a managing agent changes, the owner entity changes address, or responsibility for a regulated portfolio moves to a new operating team, the record review should happen before the transition is treated as complete.

Waiting until annual registration opens can create avoidable cleanup. By then, ORRA/ARRO access, building records, Yardi setup, contact ownership, pending cases, tenant communication, and internal reports may already be pointed at the wrong owner or managing-agent record.

Situations that should trigger review

• A rent-regulated building is acquired or transferred.
• The managing agent changes.
• The owner or managing-agent mailing address changes.
• A portfolio is reorganized after an acquisition, merger, or internal restructuring.
• Annual registration or tenant communication reveals a mismatch in owner or managing-agent records.

Ownership vs. Address vs. Managing-Agent Changes

RA-44 can be easy to underestimate because several transition events are handled through the same form. The operational risk is that teams may update one record while leaving related records behind.

Keeping these scenarios separate helps the team avoid false confidence. A mailing address update is not the same as a new owner onboarding. A managing-agent change may not transfer ownership, but it can still affect access, communication, open cases, and responsibility for deadlines.

Acquisition and Portfolio Handoff Risks

Portfolio transitions are messy because the legal transfer, management handoff, system setup, reporting process, and compliance records rarely move at exactly the same pace. A property can be live in the operating environment before the owner record, managing-agent record, filing access, and document trail are fully reconciled.

HCR's RA-44 instructions advise new owners to acquire the rental history for the building and the case status of pending cases. They also point owners toward REC-1 as a way to request that information. That is a helpful reminder: a change of ownership is not just a name change. It is an inherited-record review.

For owner-side teams, the handoff should answer three questions. What records did we inherit? Which records need correction? Which system or workflow now owns each correction? If those answers are not documented, the same mismatch may reappear during registration, renewal, surcharge review, tenant communication, or legal review.

How RA-44 Connects to Registration Work

RA-44 is not the same as annual rent registration, initial registration, or ORRA/ARRO filing. It is a different workflow, but the same underlying records can affect all of them. That is why ownership and managing-agent cleanup should not sit off to the side.

The annual rent registration deadline guide covers timing and readiness. The ORRA / ARRO annual registration guide covers the online filing workflow. The initial rent registration guide covers first-time registration for newly stabilized units. RA-44 supports that ecosystem by keeping owner and managing-agent records aligned when a transition occurs.

If ownership records are stale, the registration workflow can become harder than it needs to be. The team may discover the issue while trying to access an online filing environment, validate a building record, respond to a tenant question, or reconcile an internal report against agency records.

Records to Verify Before Filing

Before RA-44 is filed or treated as complete, the team should verify the records that make the change operationally real. The form captures the change, but the operating environment still needs to reflect that change accurately.

Start with the building and owner record. Confirm the building address, registration number, ownership entity, managing-agent information, physical address, mailing address, telephone number, email address, and the date of the reported change. Then confirm which records need updates outside the form itself.

For newly acquired buildings, the review should also include rental history, pending cases, open registration issues, lease packages, tenant communication templates, reporting ownership, and document storage. A clean transition should leave the next reviewer with a clear trail.

Records to check

• Building address and rent registration number.
• Former owner or managing-agent information.
• New owner or managing-agent name, address, phone, and email.
• Effective date of the reported change.
• Rental history and any known open case status.
• ORRA/ARRO access and user ownership.
• Yardi property, owner, contact, reporting, and document records.
• Internal approval and retention process for the final filing record.

Where Yardi Data Needs to Be Clean

For teams using Yardi, RA-44 readiness is really transition-data readiness. The source records should make it clear who owns the building, who manages it, who receives communications, who controls reporting, who owns registration work, and where the final filing support lives.

The Yardi side of the workflow should not be limited to adding a property or changing a contact field. The transition can affect property setup, entity records, owner records, management responsibility, tenant communication, lease records, custom reports, user roles, document storage, and reporting packages.

RA-44 may be a specific form, but the underlying handoff affects annual registration, renewal packages, lease riders, 421-a surcharge review, preferential rent review, and other owner-side workflows. If ownership and managing-agent records are stale, those downstream processes can inherit the same mismatch.

Common Transition Breakdowns

RA-44 problems usually show up as small mismatches first. A contact name is wrong. A mailing address is stale. A building is tied to the wrong internal group. A filing user does not have access. A tenant communication references an old managing agent. A report shows one ownership record while the agency record shows another.

Those issues become more expensive when they are discovered late. The same mismatch can affect annual registration, renewal package timing, open case notices, resident correspondence, legal review, and management reporting.

The fix is not to make the form process more complicated. It is to make transition ownership clearer. Every ownership or managing-agent change should have a short closeout checklist that confirms the form, the source records, the online access, the reporting logic, and the document trail are aligned.

RA-44 Readiness Checklist

When a rent-regulated property changes ownership, managing-agent responsibility, or owner/managing-agent address information, teams should close the loop before the transition creates registration, reporting, or tenant-communication cleanup later.

• Confirm the event that triggered review: ownership change, managing-agent change, address change, or portfolio restructuring.
• Verify the current HCR RA-44 form and instructions before relying on a saved copy.
• Confirm the building address and rent registration number.
• Confirm the former and new owner or managing-agent information.
• Confirm the effective date of the reported change.
• Review rental history and known open case status for newly acquired buildings.
• Confirm who owns ORRA/ARRO access and annual registration work after the transition.
• Update Yardi owner, managing-agent, property, reporting, and document records where needed.
• Review resident-facing templates and internal reports for stale owner or managing-agent information.
• Retain the filed form, support records, approvals, and related correspondence together.

DHCR RA-44 Change of Ownership FAQ

Sources to Verify Before Reporting Ownership or Address Changes

RA-44 planning is operational guidance, not legal advice. Owners should verify current filing requirements, form instructions, rent-regulation obligations, and case-specific questions with HCR sources and counsel before filing or relying on any form.

• HCR Form RA-44: Report of Change in Ownership or Address
• HCR Tenant/Owner Forms
• HCR Rent Registration
• HCR Owner Rent Regulation Applications
• 9 NYCRR 2523.8
• 9 NYCRR 2503.8