Wednesday, July 13, 2011

2011 Extension of New York State's Rent Regulation Laws

Though inadequate in many respects, the New York State legislature reached a deal on extending and expanding the rent regulation laws.  As stated in this press release http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20110624c/, the highlights of the amendments are:

(1) Extension of the rent regulation laws for another four years [There is simply no justification for not making them permanent or, at the very least, extending them for a greater period of time--the legislature is now set up for another fight four years from now, continuing the uncertainty for rent regulated tenants];

(2) The threshold for high income deregulation was increased to $200,000.00 from $175,000.00 in gross adjusted income per household;

(3) The threshold for vacancy deregulation was increased to $2,500.00 from $2,000.00 per month;

(4) The percentage of the cost of individual apartment improvements that a landlord can apply to increase the legal rent was decreased from 1/40th to 1/60th [The law leaves intact the egregious allowance that landlords may apply these increases without any evidence of their expenditures or approval by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal]; and,

(5) Building owners are only permitted one vacancy increase per year.

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