McKee's Media - Feb. 15, 2019

NATIONAL RENT REGULATION

Portland Mercury: Oregon state senate passes statewide rent control bill

Konrad Pulitzer: Progressive lawmakers in several states take aim at landlords with rent control, tax proposals (Wall Street Journal)

WIVB-TV: Akron mobile home residents continue rent strike against out-of-town owner (VIDEO)

ALBANY

Raina Lipsitz: Andrea Stewart-Cousins is Albany's best hope (The Nation)

Fred Mogul: New York's rent reform battle has just begun (Gothamist/WNYC)

City Limits: Tenant organizations ramping up push to strengthen, expand rent protection laws

Oksana Mironova: The fight for stronger rent laws is New York is beginning (Shelterforce)

Nick Reisman: Andrew Cuomo says his rent control plan is "very aggressive" (NY State of Politics)

Rebecca Lewis: Interview with Julia Salazar, youngest member of the state senate, about her first month in office & universal rent control (City & State)

Amy Bettys: Cuomo's proposal to lower threshold to $500 for lobbying registration would hurt grass roots groups (City & State OpEd)

NY CITY COUNCIL AND LOCAL CONSTRUCTION

amny: With higher interest rates & new anti-harassment rules, landlords are less likely to pursue buyouts of rent-regulated tenants

Gothamist: City Council bills would limit brokers fees & security deposits

Amy Plitt: Hell's Kitchen will get 258 long-planned affordable apartments (Curbed NY)

NYCHA

David Goodman: Interim NYCHA chair Stanley Brezenoff breaks with de Blasio on settlement wit HUD, criticizes lack of federal money (New York Times)

Gotham Gazette: City Council Public Housing Committee chair Alicka Ampry-Samuel on NYCHA settlement

Market tenants have better chance for re-stabilizing apartments - especially in Stellar buildings

New court decisions mean you might be able to get back into rent stabilization

Some things have change that could make it easier for market tenants to get their apartments back into rent stabilization - even if they've been market-rate for over 4 years.  

1.      There is a new on-line portal, NYS Rent Connect  (https://rent.hcr.ny.gov/RentConnect/Welcome) for easily getting your apartment’s rent history.

2.      Two recent court decisions have found that Stellar Management  wildly exaggerated its costs for renovating and reconfiguring its apartments, so the costs were not enough to legally take the apartment out of rent regulation​.  The earlier decision is Rossman v. Windermere by a mid-level state court, which awarded punitive damages to the tenant.  The newer decision is Amwest Realty Associates LLC v. Michael Sargeant and Jonathan Saballos, 171 W. 81st St.​ 

3.      The most recent court decision found that Stellar Management intentionally inflat​ed its costs and awarded the tenants triple damages.  An intentional inflation of costs could be fraud.  Where there is fraud, a tenant can get around the 4-year statute of limitations for getting an apartment back into rent regulation.

​If you're interested in pursuing this after getting your apartment’s rent history, please consult an attorney about this.

NYS creates 1-stop portal for rent-stabilized tenant issues

NY Curbed
https://ny.curbed.com/2019/2/4/18211090/new-york-rent-stabilized-apartments-nys-rent-connect

EXCERPT:

New York state creates one-stop portal for rent-stabilized tenant issues

Find your rent history, submit a complaint, and more—all in one place

By Amy Plitt@plitter  Feb 4, 2019, 4:29pm EST

If you’re a New Yorker living in a rent-stabilized apartment, chances are you’ve struggled with finding a necessary piece of paperwork—the form for requesting your apartment’s rent history, for example, or the right complaint if your landlord is dragging their heels on renewing your lease. In the past, those forms were scattered throughout the website for the Department of Homes and Community Renewal, New York state’s agency that handles rent regulation.

But no longer: Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that the state has created a new portal, called NYS Rent Connect, that’s a one-stop shop for tenants of rent-regulated apartments (and their landlords) to deal with any potential issues that may arise with those apartments.

Click here for the full article.