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New York's highest court recently agreed to determine whether a rent-stabilized lease could be sold off in a bankruptcy or is a protected "local public assistance benefit," as outlined under New York law. Other such protected benefits include welfare and unemployment payments.
Mayor de Blasio recently announced the appointment of Rachel Godsil as Chair of the Rent Guidelines Board. This news comes after the mayor made five appointments to the board last month: Sarah Williams Willard as an owners' representative, Cecilia Joza and Steven Flax as public members, and Sheila Garcia as a tenant representative. The mayor also reappointed current tenants' representative Harvey Epstein to the board.
Apartment rents in the city are about 75 percent higher than they were in 2000, according to a recently released report on housing affordability from city Comptroller Scott Stringer. The median apartment rent in the city surged 75 percent to $1,100 between 2000 and 2012. That's 31 percent higher than the average in the rest of the U.S. The median rent was $630 in 2000; inflation accounts for about $200 of the $470 increase since then.
A group of Brooklyn tenants has filed a federal lawsuit against two landlords, accusing them of illegally trying to force black residents out of their rent-stabilized apartments to make room for new renters who pay market rates. According to court documents, most of the tenants have resided in the complex for decades. The suit alleges that the owners have violated the federal Fair Housing Act as well as city and state human rights laws.
In legal terms, a certified question is a formal request by one court to one of its sister courts, usually but not always in another jurisdiction, for an opinion on a question of law. This happened in the appeal of a 78-year-old rent-stabilized tenant's bankruptcy case.
On March 27, Mayor de Blasio appointed four new members to the Rent Guidelines Board. During his campaign against Republican Joe Lhota in October, de Blasio said that he would push the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents when it votes in June. The mayor doesn’t have direct authority over the board, so his primary influence is through his appointments.
Cash-flowing rental properties allow owners to build wealth over the long term in the form of an appreciating asset while also generating monthly income. RealtyTrac recently performed a nationwide analysis of rental returns for each county. It calculated the gross rental yield by taking the 2014 fair-market rent for a three-bedroom home multiplied by 12 (months) and then dividing that 12-month total by the median sales price of residential properties in the county.
In a recently filed lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, two building owners and three landlord groups have asked the court to declare many of the newly amended rent stabilization regulations and the actions of the state's Tenant Protection Unit "invalid and unenforceable." Gov. Cuomo established the unit in 2012 to investigate landlord fraud, and the legislature has twice declined to provide funding for it.
A key city panel unanimously approved plans for the $1.5 billion redevelopment of the old Domino Sugar refinery on the Brooklyn waterfront. The City Planning Commission signed off on the proposal after the de Blasio administration pressured the developers, Two Trees Management, to include more low-income housing units in the 2,300-apartment project.
Public Advocate Letitia James recently filed a complaint against the owners of an Upper West Side apartment complex that has barred its rent-stabilized tenants from the building’s gym. The Commission on Human Rights complaint against the owners cite a 2008 law prohibiting discrimination based on income. It was established to protect tenants in the Section 8 voucher program, but James says it may apply in this case.
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