Statewide rent regulation reform
On Friday, June 14, the New York State legislature enacted a set of sweeping rent regulation reforms that will have a dramatic effect on rent increases on stabilized apartments throughout the State. The reform package promises to strengthen tenant protections that have been eroded year after year and contributed to a vast number of evictions and for many, homelessness.
While the final package that was passed, and almost immediately signed by Governor Cuomo, did not give tenant advocates all of the provisions of the nine bills that were under consideration, much that is positive for tenants was accomplished. We can hopefully look to additional, future reforms that will increasingly protect tenants and consequentially prevent homelessness.
CFH is marching for affordable housing
Some of the most important new provisions include:
- Repeal of the โvacancy bonusโ often referred to as an โeviction bonusโ. This provision gave landlords the right to start charging up to 20 percent more for rent stabilized apartments every time they turned over a new tenant. This โbonusโ has long been bitterly condemned as a landlord incentive to try and force a tenant out.
- Vacancy decontrol โ before the new reforms, landlords could deregulate vacant rent stabilized apartments once their rent reached a set dollar amount (most recently, $2,733) or more a month. Consider the plight of the older tenant, often retired and living on a fixed income whose rent has climbed over the years to the โmagicโ dollar limit and finds his or her rent skyrockets overnight to a market rate of say, $5,000 per month (it has happened!) What has been the result? Loss of a long-term home? The possibility of homelessness?
- The state will now be required to inspect and audit building improvements to ensure inflated maintenance costs are not passed on to tenants, an often-heard complaint in the past.
- A common practice has been โpreferential rentโ. This has also ended. Using it allowed landlords to raise rents substantially on rent stabilized tenants if the initial lease charged below the maximum legal rent.
- The reforms now allow municipalities around New York State to set up rental protections like those in New York City. Something that was not permissible in the past.
One provisions that did not pass at this time would have mandated landlords statewide to show โgood causeโ before beginning eviction proceedings or refusing to renew a lease and would have restricted excessive rent hikes. Who knows: this very favorable tenant protection may reappear in the future? We hope so!
