July 01, 2011
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New York State Homes and Community Renewal

 

On June 24th, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced passage of the greatest expansion of rent regulations in 40 years.
 
The important pro-tenant changes proposed by the Governor and passed by the Legislature include raising the deregulation rent threshold for the first time since 1993 and raising the income threshold for the first time since 1997.
 
From 1994 to the present day, more than 238,000 apartments were removed from the rent regulation system, leaving middle class New Yorkers with fewer affordable housing options. Without this expanded bill, it is estimated that more than 100,000 additional apartments would be lost to decontrol in the next few years.
 
These regulations will ensure that these units will stay in the rent regulation system and remain available for hard-working New Yorkers. The new rent regulations, which will be in effect until 2015, include the following important pro-tenant changes:
 
  • Raises the deregulation rent threshold from $2,000 to $2,500.
  • Raises the income threshold from $175,000 to $200,000.
  • These changes will help ensure that almost 100,000 units will stay in the rent regulation system over the next few years and remain available for working-class New Yorkers.
  • Limits landlords to collect only one vacancy bonus per year, reducing the manipulation of leases in order to push units out of the system.
  • Changes how improvements are calculated and verified for individual apartments, which will reduce a landlord's ability to abuse these renovations as a tool to force units out of regulation.