Requires the rent guidelines board to take other sources of income received by landlords from commercial rents and unregulated residential units into account when establishing annual calculations

1 Co-sponsor

• Tony Avella

BILL NUMBER:S3037

Title of bill

An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the rent guidelines board to take other sources of income received by landlords from commercial rents and unregulated residential units into account when establishing annual calculations

Purpose or general idea of bill

This bill would require the rent guidelines board to consider landlord profits in addition to landlord costs when determining annual guidelines for rent adjustments.

Summary of specific provisions

This bill amends section 26-510 of the administrative code of the city of New York.

Justification

The New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) is mandated to establish rent adjustments for the nearly one million dwelling units subject to the Rent Stabilization Law in New York City. To determine the adjustment, the RGB holds a series of public meetings to hear testimony from owners and tenants, but under the current law the Board is instructed only to consider factors that contribute to landlord costs, not their overall profit. To determine landlord costs, the RGB depends on statements from property owners such as the Real Property Income and Expense (RPIE) statements, but an audit of RPIE statements collected from rent-stabilized buildings revealed that on average, operation and maintenance costs were exaggerated by 8%.

This bill would put tenants and landlords on equal footing before the law by requiring the RGB to also consider all sources of income, including rents from unregulated residential tenants and commercial units. Middle and low income citizens who depend on rent-stabilized apartments are being priced out of New York City as the RGB raises rents each year based on exaggerated cost reports from landlords. The RGB needs a more balanced picture of what is actually happening in the rental market in order to make fair determinations about rent adjustments.

Prior legislative history

A.7240 of 2007-08 A.5450 of 2009-10

Fiscal implications

Undetermined.

Effective date

Immediate upon passage, with provisions.