Just say "NAY" to bill to undermine the 2019 tenant law

 Go to https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S6352 and click NAY.


Sen. Leroy Comrie's bill would eat into the 2019 tenant protection law, ending
  • the caps on IAIs,
  • the ban on longevity increases, and even
  • vacancy deregulation.

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HPD Hearing to Change Mitchell-Lama Rules - 3/14/23

HPD has proposed many changes to Mitchell-Lama rules. 

The hearing will be on March 14, 2023 from 10 to 11 AM, and you can testify on line, by email, by regular mail, and by fax. 

You can participate on line by computer or phone. 

Click here for how to submit testimony, how to participate in the hearing, and what the proposed changes are. 

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DHCR must determine "depreciability" for façade repair MCI

If rent stabilized tenants in your building are facing a Major Capital Improvement (MCI) rent increase because of façade repair, this State Supreme Court decision might help you.  

The state law requires that to qualify as an MCI, work must "depreciable" under the federal Internal Revenue Code. The court ruled that façade repair is no exception - despite what the regulations say.  So the state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal must first determine whether the work done would be depreciable under the IRC.  Regular repair work is NOT depreciable.  To be depreciable, the work must

  • be performed for the first time
  • create something entirely new, and
  • be of significant scale (for example affecting at least 80% of the building). 

The Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenant Association and its lawyers, Collins Dobkin & Miller, won this case - although it might be appealed. This is from the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenant Association newsletter:

Tenants get money back— court agrees with TA challenges to 19 façade MCIs 


The court issued a very favorable Order and Decision on the TA’s objections to DHCR’s granting of 19 individual Major Capital Improvement rent increases related to Local Law 11 façade work. As you know, we challenged all approved MCIs in a filing called an Article 78, which comes before the court.

We prevailed on the two key issues: failure to file in time and failure to consider depreciability as an IRS standard for work to qualify as an MCI.


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The Design & Function of the 4 Rent Guidelines Boards

Read Michael McKee's authoritative explanation of the design and functions of the Rent Guidelines Boards in New York City, Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester Counties. 

Then work with the Rent Justice Coalition to keep future increases low!


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Mixed results for tenants

 Albany ended its legislative session in 2022 with mixed results for tenants. 

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Right2Remain - sign the petition

 Landlords shouldn’t be allowed to raise your rent just because they want more profit. The #Right2Remain would help tenants to fight back against landlord greed. Sign the petition to stop the rent hikes! https://right2remain.com/




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Landlords create artificial shortage, then pressure state to rollback protections

 TONIGHT AT 6:30 PM on Zoom 

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The management of 50 West 97th Street refuses to offer for rent 9 vacant rent stabilized apartments.  The management is just warehousing them. And that's just one building.


So landlords are creating a fake shortage of apartments, and then offering to relieve it if the state will let them double the rents every 5 years by permitting vacancy bonuses again. (In the past, landlords got a 20% increase every time a rent stabilized apartment became vacant. If tenants were harassed out by certain landlords, that could mean a new tenant every year - and that would result in a 100% rent increase without the landlord even having to slap on a coat of paint.)

Tonight the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing is hosting a Zoom Town Hall about this issue.  Join us!

6:30 PM.  
By phone: 646 558 8656 (meeting ID: 83569891685#)

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