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A diverse coalition of civil justice leaders, homeowners, and landlords recently filed a lawsuit charging that the property tax system is racially biased. The coalition, Tax Equity Now NY (TENNY), filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court backed up by data collected by former city finance commissioner Martha Stark mapping out a disparity that hurts certain homeowners and renters.
According to income and expense data recently released by the Rent Guidelines Board, owners’ net operating income rose 10.8 percent in 2015 and operating costs rose 1.1 percent from 2014 to 2015. This is the 11th consecutive year that net operating income has increased, and it represents the highest recorded increase since 1997 to 1998.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Debra James recently upheld the Rent Guidelines Board’s 2016 decision to freeze rents for all stabilized rental units in the City of New York. It was the second year in a row that the RGB chose to freeze rents for stabilized units.
Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced two new appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board: David Reiss, a Brooklyn Law School professor specializing in property law, and Hilary Botein, a professor at Baruch College's Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. The board is responsible for establishing rent adjustments for approximately one million dwelling units subject to rent stabilization in New York City. Reiss and Botein will serve as public members of the board.
In Matter of Prometheus Realty Corp. v. New York City Water Board, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, agreed that water rates for 2016-17 should continue to be frozen for all, rather than increased for multifamily customers so that single-family homeowners could get a credit. It upheld the lower court's ruling invalidating the city's attempt to approve a 2.1 percent increase to the water rates for fiscal year 2017 and a one-time credit of $183 for Class 1 property owners of one- to three-family homes.
Tenants facing eviction proceedings in New York City Housing Court will have free universal access to legal services under a new $93 million city allocation recently announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
The funding will make New York City the biggest city in the country to offer universal access including free legal advice to all tenants in Housing Court and full legal representation for low-income tenants. The city estimates at least 400,000 people will be served by the program every year when it’s fully implemented.
A building owner failed to convince a Manhattan judge to remove the city’s list of “100 Worst Landlords” from the NYC.gov website. The list has the owner at No. 34.
The owner, who had accumulated 565 violations at seven buildings, argued that he shouldn’t be on the list because his two structures with the most infractions are vacant. The judge said a violation in a vacant building doesn’t make it less of a violation, citing the still-present potential hazards to first-responders and squatters.
The Independent Budget Office of the City of New York (IBO) recently issued a report that found the 421-a program was especially inefficient compared to the average tax break. It found the 421a program to be the city’s largest tax expenditure at $1.4 billion this fiscal year due to benefits that were approved and locked in prior to the program’s suspension. The now lapsed 421-a program was designed to lower developers' costs to help make more new apartment projects feasible in the city.
In April 2016, the New York State Court of Appeals found that a landlord has no duty to remove lead paint from apartments where children 6 years or younger may spend time but don’t live. The court found that a child spending in excess of 50 hours a week in an apartment didn’t trigger the landlord’s duty [Yaniveth R. v. LTD Realty Co., April 2016]. In the case, the 6 year old lived with her parents, but stayed with her paternal grandmother in the grandmother’s rented apartment five days a week for a total of 50 hours per week while her parents worked.
The DHCR has published updated Forms HRVD-N (Notice of Apartment Deregulation Pursuant to High Rent Vacancy) and RA-93 CF (Income Certification Form) to reflect the 2017 Deregulation Rent Thresholds.
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