Give Tenants More Response Time

Section 1. Paragraph 1 of subdivision g of section 26-405 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subparagraph (g-1) to read as follows:

(g-1) Where an application for a major capital improvement rent increase has been filed, a tenant shall have one hundred twenty days from the date of mailing of a notice of a proceeding in which to answer or reply. The city rent agency shall provide any responding tenant with the reasons for the city rent agency's approval or denial of such application; or

§ 2. Paragraph 6 of subdivision c of section 26-511 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by section 29 of part A of chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:

(6) provides criteria whereby the commissioner may act upon applications by owners for increases in excess of the level of fair rent increase established under this law provided, however, that such criteria shall provide (a) as to hardship applications, for a finding that the level of fair rent increase is not sufficient to enable the owner to maintain approximately the same average annual net income (which shall be computed without regard to debt service, financing costs or management fees) for the three year period ending on or within six months of the date of an application pursuant to such criteria as compared with annual net income, which prevailed on the average over the period nine-

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD00496-01-9

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teen hundred sixty-eight through nineteen hundred seventy, or for the first three years of operation if the building was completed since nineteen hundred sixty-eight or for the first three fiscal years after a transfer of title to a new owner provided the new owner can establish to the satisfaction of the commissioner that he or she acquired title to the building as a result of a bona fide sale of the entire building and that the new owner is unable to obtain requisite records for the fiscal years nineteen hundred sixty-eight through nineteen hundred seventy despite diligent efforts to obtain same from predecessors in title and further provided that the new owner can provide financial data covering a minimum of six years under his or her continuous and uninterrupted operation of the building to meet the three year to three year comparative test periods herein provided; and (b) as to completed buildingwide major capital improvements, for a finding that such improvements are deemed depreciable under the Internal Revenue Code and that the cost is to be amortized over an eight-year period for a building with thirty-five or fewer housing accommodations, or a nine-year period for a building with more than thirty-five housing accommodations, for any determination issued by the division of housing and community renewal after the effective date of the rent act of 2015, based upon cash purchase price exclusive of interest or service charges. Where an application for a major capital improvement rent increase has been filed, a tenant shall have one hundred twenty days from the date of mailing of a notice of a proceeding in which to answer or reply. The state division of housing and community renewal shall provide any responding tenant with the reasons for the division's approval or denial of such application. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, no hardship increase granted pursuant to this paragraph shall, when added to the annual gross rents, as determined by the commissioner, exceed the sum of, (i) the annual operating expenses, (ii) an allowance for management services as determined by the commissioner, (iii) actual annual mortgage debt service (interest and amortization) on its indebtedness to a lending institution, an insurance company, a retirement fund or welfare fund which is operated under the supervision of the banking or insurance laws of the state of New York or the United States, and (iv) eight and one-half percent of that portion of the fair market value of the property which exceeds the unpaid principal amount of the mortgage indebtedness referred to in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph. Fair market value for the purposes of this paragraph shall be six times the annual gross rent. The collection of any increase in the stabilized rent for any apartment pursuant to this paragraph shall not exceed six percent in any year from the effective date of the order granting the increase over the rent set forth in the schedule of gross rents, with collectability of any dollar excess above said sum to be spread forward in similar increments and added to the stabilized rent as established or set in future years;

§ 3. Subdivision d of section 6 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, is amended by adding a new paragraph (3-a) to read as follows:

(3-a) an application for a major capital improvement rent increase has been filed, a tenant shall have one hundred twenty days from the date of mailing of a notice of a proceeding in which to answer or reply. The state division of housing and community renewal shall provide any responding tenant with the reasons for the division's approval or denial of such application; or

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§ 4. Subparagraph 7 of the second undesignated paragraph of paragraph (a) of subdivision 4 of section 4 of chapter 274 of the laws of 1946, constituting the emergency housing rent control law, as amended by section 32 of part A of chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:

(7) there has been since March first, nineteen hundred fifty, a major capital improvement required for the operation, preservation or maintenance of the structure; which for any order of the commissioner issued after the effective date of the rent act of 2015 the cost of such improvement shall be amortized over an eight-year period for buildings with thirty-five or fewer units or a nine year period for buildings with more than thirty-five units, provided, however, where an application for a major capital improvement rent increase has been filed, a tenant shall have one hundred twenty days from the date of mailing of a notice of a proceeding in which to answer or reply. The state division of housing and community renewal shall provide any responding tenant with the reasons for the division's approval or denial of such application; or

§ 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law; provided that:

(a) the amendments to section 26-405 of the city rent and rehabilitation law made by section one of this act shall remain in full force and effect only as long as the public emergency requiring the regulation and control of residential rents and evictions continues, as provided in subdivision 3 of section 1 of the local emergency housing rent control act;

(b) the amendments to section 26-511 of chapter 4 of title 26 of the administrative code of the city of New York made by section two of this act shall expire on the same date as such law expires and shall not affect the expiration of such law as provided under section 26-520 of such law;

(c) the amendments to section 6 of the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four made by section three of this act shall expire on the same date as such act expires and shall not affect the expiration of such act as provided in section 17 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974; and

(d) the amendments to section 4 of the emergency housing rent control law made by section four of this act shall expire on the same date as such law expires and shall not affect the expiration of such law as provided in subdivision 2 of section 1 of chapter 274 of the laws of 1946.