After years and then finally months and weeks and days of tremendous pressure by tenants, and a change in party-control of the NYS Senate (yay, elections!), we now have the
The new law will change many things state-wide for tenants. Instead of making it easier for landlords to replace lower-paying tenants with higher-paying tenants (a great investment tactic for hedge funds), the new law makes it easier for tenants to keep their homes. The summary below is not complete and is not legal advice. (See some other summaries here and here.) In addition, the rent laws no longer have an automatic "sunset" date. They are permanent, which may be why landlords have filed suit in federal court to undo the rent law changes.
Click on "read more" for a comparison chart of some of the changes between what we had and what is in the new
In addition, read explanations about it
at
SUMMARY of the 2019 RENT LAW
most of which went into effect on June 15, 2019.
This is not complete, and not legal advice!
OLD LAW
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NEW LAW
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Rent laws applied only downstate. Only the downstate counties could regulate rents. |
State-wide application:
Any county anywhere in New
York State can regulate rents, and protections for unregulated tenants apply
state-wide.
|
Major capital improvement to the whole building →
permanent rent increases
for rent stabilized tenants. The increase is compounded with
lease-renewal increases. (Market-rate tenants are already paying a lot!
They’re not subject to MCIs.)
|
Major capital improvement to the whole
building → 30-year rent increases for rent
stabilized tenants. The increase is compounded with lease-renewal
increases, but all that will be removed at the end of 30 years. Doesn’t
affect market-rate tenants.
|
MCI costs
were approved even if much greater than normal.
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DHCR will
create a schedule of reasonable MCI costs.
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The formula to
determine an MCI was:
Divide
by 98 (number of months in 9 years), and then by the number
of rooms in the building to get the per-room amount.
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The formula to
determine an MCI is: Divide
by 150 (number of months in 12.5 years) and then by the
number of rooms in the building to get the per-room amount. This yields
a much lower per-room amount.
|
The tenant had
to pay increase of at least 6% of current rent each year toward the MCI until the
full amount was reached.
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The tenant
must pay no more than 2% of current rent each year toward the MCI until the full amount is reached.
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The tenant
also had to pay the retroactive amount – from the time the
landlord applied for an MCI until the time the state housing agency granted it.
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NO retroactive
amount for MCI.
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DHCR granted MCIs even
if landlord violates the building code.
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No MCI if there is a
hazardous violation (not yet fixed)
against the landlord.
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No oversight
of MCIs.
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DHCR must audit 25% of all MCIs
each year.
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All buildings
with any rent stabilized tenants
are subject to MCIs.
|
Only buildings
with at least 35% of rent stabilized
apartments get MCIs.
|
If your rent reached the de-regulation amount and your household
income total was $200,000 or more, your apartment would be taken out of
stabilization.
|
NO high-rent
deregulation
|
Time to file an overcharge: 4 years.
Damages: Tenant
could get 3 times the amount of overcharge back for the previous 2
years if fraud shown.
|
Tenant can get 3 times the amount of overcharge for the previous 6 years if fraud shown.
|
Individual Apt. Improvements:
Landlord
claimed hundreds of thousands in costs (some-times inflated) for vacant
apartments, and added 1/40th or 1/60th of those costs to the rent. That
raised the rent enough to be deregulated.
|
Improvement cost for any one apartment
are limited to $15,000 over 15 years – with no more than 3
improvements during that period.
There is no
more de-regulation of vacant apartments.
|
Apartment
empty? Landlord got up to a 20% vacancy
rent increase and sometimes a larger increase for long-term prior tenant.
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NO vacancy
bonus, no "longevity" increase.
|
Tenant
Blacklist: Landlords paid companies to collect names of tenants who had
complained or been sued in Housing Court – and refused to rent those tenants
even if they won in court.
|
It’s illegal for
a landlord to use the blacklist as a basis for refusing to rent to
that person.
|
Security deposit – landlords could ask for any
number of months’ rent and pay it back when they felt like it.
|
Landlords can ask for only 1 month’s rent for a security deposit. The deposit must be returned within 14 days at the end of the occupancy.
Tenants can inspect apartment before moving in, and must get notice 2 weeks before more out of what landlord is claiming as a reason not to return the security deposit - and give the tenant a chance to fix it .Landlords can withhold security deposit for damage above normal wear and tear, nonpayment of rent or utilities, moving and storage of tenant's belongings. |
The landlord could raise the unregulated rent or choose not to renew the lease at the end of the lease, with no notice to tenants. Tenants who break the lease are responsible for the whole lease amount. |
If the landlord plans to not renew the lease of or to raise the market-rate tenant’s rent by more than 5%, the landlord must notify the tenant at least 60 days before lease (if tenant has lived here 1-2 years at end of lease), or 90 days (if tenant has lived here longer).
If the tenant breaks the lease, the landlord has a duty to mitigate by renting at the lower of the market rent or the tenant's last rent. |
Late fees: Whatever the landlord said in the
lease.
|
Late fees: Grace period of at least 5 days,
and late fees for market tenants in this building can’t be more than
$50 or 5% of the rent (whichever is less).
|
Short notice to
tenants of non-payment
|
Longer notice to
tenants of non-payment. Tenants also get a longer period to
reply. Read the court documents if you
get them!
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Conversion to Condo or Co-op: Landlord needed 15% of existing renters to
agree, for a non-eviction plan, and 51% for a plan in which existing tenants
could be evicted.
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Conversion to Condo or Co-op:
Landlords need 51% of existing renters to
agree for a non-eviction plan. (No more eviction plans.)
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Preferential rent “bait
and switch” : Landlord rented an apartment for under the legal regulated
rent. At the next lease renewal, the landlord added the Rent Guidelines Board
increases to the higher legal regulated rent. The tenant couldn’t
afford it and moved out.
|
The preferential rent is
considered the legal regulated rent as long as that tenant lives there.
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Rent controlled tenants
in apartments built before 1947 paid 7.5% increase yearly plus a “fuel pass-along.”
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Rent controlled tenants
in apartments built before 1947 have essentially the same increases as rent
stabilized tenants. (There’s a formula based on the Rent Guidelines.)
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Trailer Parks: They used to be able to raise rents any amount, and the “mobile home”
owners (of homes that were in fact too fragile to move) were stuck.
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Trailer Parks: Lot owners can only raise the rent 3%/year unless they can open their books and show hardship.
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