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A group of four big short-term rental Web sites–Airbnb HomeAway, TripAdvisor, and FlipKey–recently announced that they’re starting the Short Term Rental Advocacy Center. The site will aggregate short-term-rental-friendly regulations from around the country in hopes of creating a legislative blueprint that cities can use to craft new short-term rental regulations.

Many owners supply tenants with appliances such as refrigerators, stoves, microwave ovens, and garbage disposals. And when these appliances eventually break down, you may need to know whether you’re supposed to repair or replace the broken appliance. Failing to do so, if required, can result in a Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) ruling that you have reduced services, and the DHCR can order a rent cut.

The Department of Buildings (DOB) has posted updated the following post-hurricane repair information:

1. Elevator Applications: Post-Hurricane Repairs

All repair or replacement work to elevators damaged by Hurricane Sandy must be filed with the DOB and comply with the below guidelines.

This winter season while your tenants may be out-of-town enjoying warmer climates, you may find yourself needing to gain immediate access to their apartments for emergency repairs. A common dispute between owners and tenants involves the conflict between your right to enter an apartment and your tenant's right to privacy.

The city’s system for tracking who owns rental properties—a crucial resource in times of crisis, like Hurricane Sandy—is falling short, says a recent report issued by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. According to the report, the vast majority of owners required to register with the city fail to do so.

For the first time in New York City, a multi-unit building will legally consist entirely of what the city has dubbed "micro units," which are apartments of between 250 and 370 square feet. Construction will begin by the end of the year on the 10-story, 55-microunit building at 335 East 27th Street in Manhattan.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently revised flood maps covering sections of New York City and Westchester. During Hurricane Sandy, raging floodwaters went far beyond the borders of the danger zones drawn on earlier maps. New York’s flood maps hadn’t been updated since the 1980s and do not reflect today’s risks. The new interactive map that FEMA has issued shows double the number of structures at risk of flooding from another Hurricane Sandy, including in southern Brooklyn, the Rockaways, and Staten Island.

Tenants have given up on their Housing Court fight over a foul odor in their Manhattan Beach apartment building caused by Superstorm Sandy. A storm surge in the basement of the rent-stabilized building caused leaks in stored fuel oil. According to the tenants, they couldn’t afford independent environmental tests to prove fumes from fuel residue are a health hazard the building's owner should clean up.

A bill that gets tougher on owners who make cosmetic repairs to buildings but fail to address underlying structural problems was recently considered by the city council. If the bill is approved, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development would be able to issue orders to property owners requiring repairs to fix underlying conditions causing problems in multiple apartments in the same building. The orders would be enforceable in housing court. Once the bill goes into effect, the department plans to target about 50 apartment buildings a year.