Key change in 2015 rent law may slow pace of de-regulation

Tucked into Albany's renewal of the rent laws is a new provision, described by the

(landlords') Rent Stabilization Association:

"For high-rent vacancy deregulations based upon the new threshold, deregulation will be based upon whether the legal regulated rent for the prior tenant was more than $2,700. Please note that this change does NOT affect prior deregulations which were based upon the legal regulated rent of the new tenant."  

What it means:  

Up to now, the last tenant in an apartment that became vacant could have been paying $1800 - but the landlord then "improved" the apartment raising the rent to the de-regulation amount ($2500 before June 15, 2015).  Once it was up to that amount, the owner took it out of rent regulation permanently and rented it for whatever the market would bear - sometimes $4000 or more.

The change is that to de-regulate the apartment under the new law the LAST TENANT in that apartment when it was rent stabilized must have been paying at least $2700 a month. The improvements that the owner puts may raise the rent, but they will NOT result in de-regulating the apartment.  (How this will actually work is not clear.  Consult your tenant association's attorney!)  

Find out which buildings have more de-regulated apartments

Excerpted from John Krauss's blog

Whither Rent Regulation   

Jul 1st, 2015

EXCERPTS  : 

Buildings that are 100% stabilized look the same on [DHCR's] list as buildings with just one apartment left in the program.

The secrecy blanketing the stabilization program . . .  provides cover for landlords who fail to tell the state (register) their stabilized apartments. Registration is voluntary — another loophole in the law — and failure to do so could be an indication that they are overcharging their tenants.

If a landlord doesn’t like charging the legal rent, they can simply “forget” to register. It’s up to the tenant to take them to court to comply.

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

. . . Remarkably, the number of stabilized apartments in each building over the last seven years is hidden in plain sight, in property tax bills. With help from a few civic hackers, I built taxbills.nyc, a collection of every tax bill going back to 2008 for every building that might be stabilized in New York Cit

Tenants win RENT FREEZE from RGB: NO increase for 1-year lease renewal; 2% for 2-year lease renewal

NY Times

New York City Board Votes to Freeze 

Regulated Rents on One-Year Leases

Tenants won RGB Rent Freeze! 1 year renewal: NO INCREASE. 2 year renewal: 2% increase

Tentative rent law deal doesn't do much for tenants

The rent deal proposed by Gov. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Heastie, and Senate Majority Leader Flanagan does very little for tenants.  If you want more, contact Gov. Cuomo, our State Senator Bill Perkins and our Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell to vote NO on the "conceptual deal."

Issue	What tenants need	What Cuomo is offering
Vacancy deregulation (motivating landlords to oust regulated tenants, losing affordable apartments forever)	Repeal of vacancy deregulation	Rent at which vacant apartments can be de-regulated goes up from $2500 to $2700.
MCI and IAI increases Major Capital Improvement and Individual Apartment Improvement rent increases (now permanent)	Limit the increases to end when the cost of the improvement has been re-paid.	Reduce the permanent increase by 1/3.
Vacancy bonus Right now, landlords get a 20% rent increase just because an apartment has become vacant. That motivates them to kick out tenants to get to the vacancy decontrol threshold.	Cut the bonus.	No change
Rent law renewal term As long as vacancy deregulation is in effect, we’re losing affordable apartments.	One year renewal	Four years
Preferential rent Tenants renting at below the legal regulated rent (LRR) can be hit with LRR increases on lease renewal.	Close the loophole	No change

Keep the pressure on Gov. Cuomo. Don't let up now!

Governor Cuomo is happy to blame the State Senate and even the Assembly for the failure to renew and strengthen the rent laws so far.  (Even the landlords want them renewed;  the tenants want them strengthened.)  Click on the image for the text. 

KEEP CALLING AND EMAILING GOVERNOR CUOMO.  

518-474-8390 ext. 3, and email 

(even if you've done it recently).

​

Rent laws temporarily extended to June 23, 2015

CBS reports:  Legislative leaders and Cuomo agreed late Thursday to extend the old rules for five days — until Tuesday — when they hope a compromise will be ready for legislative consideration. Both the Senate and the Assembly planned to take up the short-term extension Thursday night. “Negotiations… are moving in a positive direction toward a resolution,” said a statement issued by Cuomo, Senate Leader John Flanagan (R-Smithtown) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx). See NY Daily News,  State Senate poised to back 5-day rent regulations extension