File photo: Mayor Bill de Blasio

NEW YORK CITY—Mayor Bill de Blasio has signed legislation to extend rent regulation laws for three years through April 1, 2021. The law also affirms that New York City remains in a housing emergency, based on the City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development's 2017 Housing and Vacancy Survey which shows a 3.63% vacancy rate for all of the city's boroughs.

A vacancy rate below 5% allows the state rent regulation laws to continue to be in effect in New York City.

“The latest HVS data confirms that New York City continues to face an affordability crisis driven by rising rents,” says HPD commissioner Maria Torres-Springer. She applauded the mayor and city council for creating stronger rent protections to help tenants.

As rent regulation comes up for renewal in Albany next year, the de Blasio administration has called the status quo unacceptable. He has proposed the following reforms to retain the stock of rent stabilized apartments, ensure current tenants can stay in their homes and protect rent stabilization for future tenants:

(1) Eliminate vacancy decontrol. End allowing a vacant apartment with a rent of $2,733.75 per month to be deregulated.

(2) Eliminate the 20% increase in monthly rent when tenants vacate an apartment. The current administration believes this change will help discourage bad landlords from pressuring tenants out of their homes in the hopes of collecting faster-rising rents.

(3) Limit landlord use of permanent rent increases for building-wide or individual apartments. Landlords have used these increases as a way to drive up legal rents to reach the threshold for rent deregulation.

(4) Limit individual apartment improvement and major capital improvement rent increases. Limit how landlords can use permanent rent increases for building-wide or individual apartments. These increases are utilized as a mechanism for raising legal rents to reach the threshold for rent deregulation.

Instant Insights /

Mayor de Blasio Signs Legislation Extending Rent Stabilization Laws

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