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Two Albany lawmakers want State Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky to investigate Airbnb for what they call misleading insurance policies. State Sen. Adriano Espaillat and Assemblyman Francisco Moya in a recent letter to Lawsky questioned the legality of Airbnb’s “$1 Million Host Guarantee,” which promises to reimburse up to $1 million in property damaged by a guest.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently announced that his office has reached a settlement with Colonial Management over the company’s maintenance of 42 rent-regulated buildings in New York City and its treatment of tenants at those properties.
The agreement requires Colonial Management Group, LLC to provide more than $225,000 in rent credits and restitution to tenants. The agreement also requires that delayed maintenance projects be completed within one year.
City Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn) recently introduced a bill requiring the city Department of Buildings to alert community boards and council members within 10 days of receiving an application to alter or demolish rent-regulated homes in their districts. The legislation has eight co-sponsors, including city Public Advocate Letitia James and council members Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) and Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills).
New York City and State officials have recently filed a joint “friend of the court” brief with the Court of Appeals urging it to shield rent-stabilized leases in bankruptcy proceedings. The case involves an elderly widow fighting to keep her rent-stabilized lease from becoming an asset with which to pay off her creditors.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently launched an investigation into allegedly illegal tactics used by a Manhattan owner to force out rent-stabilized tenants across 100 residential buildings he owns in Manhattan.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a new program to replace as many as 200,000 inefficient toilets in up to 10,000 buildings citywide. The first phase of the program will target between 7,000 and 10,000 owners who participate in DEP’s Multifamily Conservation Program (MCP). The MCP provides qualified multiple-family housing of four or more dwelling units with billing based on a fixed charge per unit in lieu of billing based on metered charges.
Over the past four months Manhattan market rental prices have continued to increase, reaching the highest peaks in more than five years, according to a recent Douglas Elliman report analyzing the rental market in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens for June 2014. The market has tightened as a result of falling vacancy rates and limited use of concessions by owners. The median rent for Manhattan was $3,300.
New York City’s Fire Department has started responding to all reports of gas odors that the city receives. This is a change in policy put into effect in the wake of the March 12 explosion in East Harlem that leveled two apartment buildings, killing eight people and injuring at least 70 others.
The NYU Furman Center recently released a fact brief that details characteristics about the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the tenants who live in stabilized housing. The brief, Profile of Rent Stabilized Units and Tenants in New York City, is an update to a 2012 Furman Center brief. According to the brief, in 2011, roughly 66 percent of tenants living in rent-stabilized units had “low incomes” (less than $58,950 in 2011), compared to roughly 54 percent of tenants in market-rate units.
An owner is filing to evict a rent-stabilized tenant for beginning to rent out her fourth-floor walkup in Tribeca in September 2012. For nine months, the owner claims she rented the apartment, charging $250 per night, $1,750 per week, or $4,500 per month for a space that she rents for $1,463.79 a month.
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