Image Credit: New York Senate.

The law places limits on various mechanisms through which landlords of rent-regulated units can raise rent and provides many other protections for tenants. On June 14, 2019, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which Cuomo called “the most sweeping, aggressive protections in state history.” The legislation extends and strengthens rent protections for tenants across the state and went into effect before the expiration of the existing rent regulations on June 15, 2019.  The new legislation makes the rules permanent, repeals high-rent vacancy deregulation and vacancy and longevity bonuses, reforms rent increases for major capital improvements and individual apartment improvements, creates protections for tenants across the state, and allows communities outside of the City to opt into rent stabilization. Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins sponsored the bills with many co-sponsors in both the State Senate and State Assembly. (read more…)

City and state officials are concerned that a bankruptcy suit involving 444 East 13th Street will lead to bad precedent undermining rent stabilization laws. (Image Credit: Google Maps)

Government officials fear bad precedent could make it easier for landlords to bypass rent stabilization laws. On March 13, 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James, the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (NYSHCR) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced that the State and City moved to join in an action in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York as part of a fight to protect tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. The owner of 444 East 13^th Street, in the East Village section of Manhattan, applied to reject tenants’ leases. (read more…)