YDC: NY has passed rent reform and it looks pretty good. Seems to really strengthen rent control and give tenants more power.
Posted by
Krusty (aka Krustylu)
Jun 12 '19, 05:15
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The one big issue that they couldn't get passed is the last one on this list, re-regulating 300k apartments that were deregulated. That would have been huge but I can see why that one would have been hard to get through. Otherwise it looks like a big win for tenants.
- No more vacancy decontrol and vacancy bonus, which allowed landlords to impose large rent hikes and deregulate apartments once they were vacated.
- Preferential rents will be permanent. If a landlord elected to offer a tenant a rent lower than the legal regulated rent, he or she can no longer raise the rent to that maximum during lease renewals. Instead, annual rent-regulated increases decided by the Rent Guideline Boards will be based off the original preferential rent.
- Renovation increases are capped. Landlords seeking to reimburse themselves for major capital improvements, or MCIs, can raise rents no higher than 2% a year. Those applying for individual apartment increases, or IAIs, now face a $15,000 cap on renovations for each apartment — and they can only apply for reimbursement once every 15 years.
- Outside of New York City, towns and cities across the state can opt-in to rent-stabilization. The only catch is that each municipalities must determine that they have a net vacancy rate that is less than 5%, which is the definition of a "housing emergency."
- Regulations governing coop and condo conversions will be strengthened. Tenant advocates had argued that the current laws made it too easy for landlords to convert apartments to owner units.
- The four-year "look back" rule become a six-year rule. Now tenants can request to look at their rent history going back as far as six years. But if there is suspicion of fraud, tenants can ask for rent bills going back even farther in time.
- "Owner-use evictions" are now limited to one apartment per building. Under the current law, landlords are able to evict tenants out of one or more units if they want to use the apartments for themselves or a family member.
- No sunset on rent laws. Rent laws will no longer expire, meaning lawmakers will not be forced to rehash these same rules in another few years.
With so many renter-friendly provisions set to become law, you might be wondering: so what didn't the tenant advocates get?
Two things:
- No good cause eviction. It's not a surprise that this bill — which would have applied rent stabilization to smaller buildings and protect tenants from being evicted for nonpayment of rent in certain cases — got left off the final package. Both Governor Cuomo and the Assembly notably failed to embrace this provision, arguing it was too far-reaching.
- Apartments lost to deregulation will not be re-regulated. An estimated 300,000 units been deregulated since the 1997 vacancy decontrol law was passed.
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