After years of living in New York City, Erica Jenkins has grown accustomed to moving from one apartment to another.

“I’ve rented in all kinds of buildings,” she said. “Sublets in condos, co-ops — I think I’ve been in six New York City apartments in 10 years.”

She’s become smarter with each search and somewhere along the way she embraced one core principle: “I’ve bounced around forever in search of the perfect New York City apartment but we all know there is no perfect apartment,” she said. “You always kind of have to give something up.”

But in the summer of 2025, Ms. Jenkins was feeling like she had given up too much. Her apartment in Long Island City was making her miserable. “It wasn’t a good place to live,” she recalled. “It was on the ground floor, street-facing, super loud — I wasn’t happy. It was also a small studio.”

Studio apartments were all she had ever known and it felt like time to graduate to something bigger. Ms. Jenkins has worked as a nurse for 15 years; she survived working in the I.C.U. at NYU Langone Health during Covid, and in 2023 she obtained a master’s degree in nursing administration, becoming a nurse manager. So, last summer when she found herself unhappy in her small, noisy, street-facing studio, a quiet one-bedroom apartment didn’t feel like too much to ask for.

She started looking around even though a move meant breaking her lease. It was something she was willing to do for the right place.

Even though she was living in Queens she started her search in Manhattan. “I’ve 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’s apartment searches were guided by two essential sources of wisdom: her past experiences and her TikTok feed. “I’ve learned a lot on my own,” she said, “but for this most recent apartment search, I was seeing a lot of TikTok videos from Allia Mohamed.”

Ms. Mohamed is the co-founder and chief executive of a company called Openigloo, which provides fee-based services to renters to better understand their rights, potential buildings and landlords before signing a lease.

“Allia posts a lot of great content,” Ms. Jenkins said, “and I kind of learned a lot about rent stabilization laws through that, and I had an idea what to look for during my apartment search.”

In October of last year she found a rent-stabilized, one-bedroom apartment through a StreetEasy search. Apartments that are rent-stabilized have their rental rates and annual increases, if any, 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 it rent stabilized but it was also freshly renovated. “Everything was brand-new and I loved it,” she said. “It was actually on the same block as my very first New York apartment in my 20s. So, it felt kind of like a full circle situation.”

Ms. Jenkins put in her application on the same day she saw the place and was approved just a few days later. Before she signed the lease, she paused to give the decision just one more consideration. “I’m looking at the lease and it says ‘rent stabilized’ at the top,” she recalled, “and I was just thinking it over. I didn’t want to make any rash decision. Again, I was like breaking a lease for this place.”

The rent was just shy of $3,600, a bit more than Ms. Jenkins felt comfortable paying. So, at the last minute, she asked to pay $3,400, which was closer to her budget. The landlord agreed and Ms. Jenkins signed a revised lease for the smaller amount.

Last October she moved into her first one-bedroom apartment, with plenty of light on a high floor, out of the direct reach of street noise. “I really liked the place,” she said. “It felt right.”

Even still, there was something about the rent amount that still didn’t quite feel right. It seemed too high for a rent-stabilized unit. “I learned from Openigloo, you can request the D.H.C.R. rental history right away,” Ms. Jenkins said.

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal is a state agency that can provide a rental history for an apartment — if it is requested by the renter. That history includes details regarding whether a unit is designated for a particular program, such as rent stabilization, and information about previous rent rates and increases over the years. All of this information is essential 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 history.”

She shared her rental history with Openigloo, wanting a second set of eyes to confirm her suspicions.

“One of the things that we’re always encouraging renters to know is if their apartment is rent stabilized and, if so, what that means for them,” Ms. Mohamed said. “We took one look at Erica’s rental history and realized almost immediately that something was not right.”

The details on Ms. Jenkins’ apartment revealed that her rent amount was nearly triple what the previous tenant paid. “I know that they can raise the rent after renovating,” she said, “but it jumped from roughly $1,100 to $3,400.”

She felt like she had three choices. “I could submit a rent overcharge complaint to D.H.C.R.,” she said. “I could reach out to a lawyer, or I could just talk to my landlord and try to figure it out.”

Ms. Jenkins chose to first see if she could work out 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 I got an email and the subject was something like ‘urgent: error made in your favor’ from my landlord’s assistant. I called my landlord and he’s like, ‘You’re never going to believe this. I made an error. I’ve never made an error like this in 25 years but here’s the situation, you’re going to be really happy with your new rent. It should be more like $1,500. I’m so sorry.’ He was trying to be very, very nice. He ended up being really nice. He’s like, ‘Live there as long as you want. I love nurses.’”

Ms. Jenkins now pays less than half of what she originally thought the apartment would cost. After giving up something for each place she’s lived, she finally found an apartment that gave something back.

“I’m thankful for knowing about the rent-stabilization laws, being guaranteed a renewal, and having this cheap rent. It’s life changing,” she said. “I’ve always moved, every year or two, but I’m going to be here for a while. A long while.”