By Phil Newman
Gov. David Paterson has proposed to change rent laws to increase from $2,000 to $3,000 the point at which a vacant apartment can be removed from rent stabilization controls.
The proposal appeared to gain scant, if any, support from either landlords or tenant advocates.
Paterson’s proposal would also nullify a court decision affecting Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in any future cases.
Under rent stabilization rules, landlords may charge market-rate rents on any apartment under rent stabilization when the rent reaches $2,000 a month and the tenant’s income totals $175,000 for two consecutive years.
The point of removal from rent controls would go to $3,000 under the governor’s proposal.
Tenant advocacy groups said it would not slow the steady diminution of rent-controlled apartments.
Michael McKee, executive director of Housing Here and Now, said, “Nothing short of full repeal of vacancy decontrol and re-regulation of the 300,000 apartments we have lost in the last 16 years will do.”
The Rent Stabilization Association, representing landlords, was also unimpressed.
“It really makes no sense from our perspective,” Frank Ricci, a lobbyist for the association, said.
Paterson’s proposal would also alter parts of a recent ruling by the state Court of Appeals that held that owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, had illegally removed from rent controls some apartments receiving tax advantages for making renovations.
The governor’s proposal would provide that the finding by the court would not be applicable in any future cases.
Rent stabilization rules are due to expire in June 2011 unless renewed by the state Legislature, which could act on the proposal at any time before the date of expiration.
About half of New York City’s 2 million apartments are under some form of rent stabilization.
The Rent Guidelines Board reports that in Queens there are some 5,359 rent-controlled apartments and 153,352 apartments under rent stabilization.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
