Deal On NY Rent Reforms: What You Need To Know

NEW YORK — State lawmakers have reached a deal on sweeping changes to New York's rent regulations, handing tenants a partial victory just days before the current laws are set to expire.

The agreement, which state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins announced late Tuesday, includes a slate of tenant-friendly reforms to the regulations governing nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City.

If they are signed into law, the changes will curtail landlords' ability to impose large rent hikes, strengthen protections against evictions and allow new municipalities to opt in to the laws. The deal would also make the rent laws permanent, meaning legislators will not have to do another dance to renew them in just a few years.

"These reforms give New Yorkers the strongest tenant protections in history," Heastie and Stewart-Cousins, both Democrats, said in a joint statement. "For too long, power has been tilted in favor of landlords and these measures finally restore equity and extends protections to tenants across the state. These reforms will pass both legislative houses and we are hopeful that the Governor will sign them into law."

The Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo must approve the new rent laws by Saturday, when the current laws expire. Cuomo, a Democrat, said he will sign the reforms if they pass.

The agreement does not include some aggressive protections that tenants-rights advocates and some lawmakers had supported. For instance, it would limit rent hikes stemming from apartment and building renovations rather than abolish them. It also does not include a measure that would bar landlords from evicting tenants without good cause.

Tenant advocates nonetheless received the agreement as a step forward for New Yorkers who have struggled with displacement and housing instability for years.

"(W)e have a long way to go until every tenant in the state can live free from the fear of a rent hike or an eviction," Cea Weaver, the campaign coordinator of the Housing Justice for All campaign, said in a statement. "This is a partial victory that strengthens tenant protections against speculative landlords and opens the possibility for tenants to fight for rent stabilization across the State of New York."

But landlords called on Cuomo to reject the deal, suggesting that it would lead New York City's housing stock to crumble and would fail to hold the worst landlords accountable. Landlords have argued that they rely on rent increases to keep their buildings in good shape.

"This legislation fails to address the City's housing crisis and will lead to disinvestment in the City's private sector rental stock consigning hundreds of thousands of rent regulated tenants to living in buildings that are likely to fall into disrepair," said Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, a coalition of landlord groups that includes the influential Real Estate Board of New York, in a statement.

Here's what you need to know about the deal to change New York's rent laws.

Ending Big Rent Hikes

The agreement would get rid of the vacancy bonus, which allows for rent hikes as large as 20 percent when a tenant moves out and a new one moves in. It would also repeal vacancy decontrol, a provision that removes apartments' rent-stabilized status when they become vacant and their rents hit a threshold of about $2,700.

It would also toss a piece of the current law that removes apartments from regulation when the tenant's income is at least $200,000 in the two preceding years. Lawmakers say the latter two provisions have deregulated more than 300,000 units of housing since they were approved in 1994.

Additionally, the deal would improve protections for tenants who pay preferential rents, prices below the legal maximum for their apartment.

Landlords who have offered preferential rents would not be able to raise them to the legal ceiling when a tenant renews their lease, lawmakers say. That will prevent tenants from facing enormous rent hikes from one year to the next.

Extending Rent Regulation Across NY

The agreement would let any municipalty opt into the state's rent-regulation system, creating the potential for statewide tenant protections. The current law only allows rent stabilization in New York City and suburban Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties.

Localities would still have to meet certain requirements to participate, such as having a vacancy rate of less than 5 percent in the housing that would be regulated, lawmakers say.

Limiting Increases For Renovations

Tenant-rights advocates wanted lawmakers to end rent hikes that account for renovations to buildings or individual apartments. The deal doesn't go that far, but it does significantly limit such increases.

Under the package, city landlords would only be able to increase rents up to 2 percent for building fixes known as major capital improvements, down from the current cap of 6 percent. Those increases would be eliminated after 30 years; the current law allows landlords to make them permanent.

The agreement would also limit landlords to three individal apartment improvements over 15 years at a maximum cost of $15,000, according to lawmakers. Rent hikes stemming from those upgrades would also go away after 30 years.