(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b) of this section, every owner subject to this Code shall keep, preserve, and make available for examination, records from the date immediately prior to the date the housing accommodation became subject to the RSL, showing the individual housing accommodation services and building-wide services provided or required to be provided on the applicable base date.
(b) An owner shall maintain records relating to rents of housing accommodations for four years prior to the date the most recent registration for such accommodation was required to have been filed. An owner shall not be required to produce any rent records in connection with proceedings under sections 2522.3 and 2526.1 of this Title relating to a period that is prior to the base date. Notwithstanding the above, such owner shall continue to maintain such records for all housing accommodations for which a complaint of overcharge or a fair market rent appeal has been filed by a tenant, until a final order of the DHCR is issued.
(c)
(1) In the absence of collusion or any relationship between a prior owner and an owner who purchases upon a judicial sale, or such other sale effected in connection with, or to resolve, in whole or in part, a bankruptcy proceeding, mortgage foreclosure action or other judicial proceeding, such purchaser shall not be required to provide records for the period prior to such sale, except where records sufficient to establish the legal regulated rent are available to such purchaser. This subdivision shall apply to an owner who purchases subsequent to such judicial or other sale.