Rent regulation in New York

In addition to controlling rent, the system also prescribes rights and obligations for tenants and landlords.

As of 2007, 51 municipalities participated in the program, including Albany, Buffalo, and New York City, where over one million apartments are regulated.

[2] In New York City, rent stabilization applies to all apartments except for certain classes of housing accommodations for so long as they uphold the status that gives them the exemption.

However, the tenant may challenge these increases on grounds that the building has violations or that the higher amount exceeds that needed to cover expenses.

The formula reflects real estate taxes, water and sewer charges, operating and maintenance expenses, return on capital and vacancy and collection loss allowance.

[10] New York City rent stabilization qualifications changed over the years, purportedly to curb perceived abuses that allowed the wealthy to enjoy protection that was ostensibly intended for the working class.

[4] There are multiple ways a building owner can free their property from rent regulation: two popular methods are to claim substantial rehabilitation or the need for demolition.

[20][21] The laws stated that when challenged by tenants, rent increases were reviewed by a standard of "reasonableness".

[19] After some court decisions, judges primarily settled on a 8% total profit on the market value of the property being considered a reasonable return.

Landlords attempted to circumvent this cap on rent through 'paper exchanges' of buildings to artificially inflate property market values.

[22]: 40 Certain apartments were decontrolled beginning in 1926, and the Rent Laws of 1920 expired completely in June 1929, although limited protections against evictions considered unjust were continued.

The goal of the act was to prevent inflation in the booming, fully employed wartime economy by setting price controls nationwide.

The initial laws covered all rental units, and regulated all relationships between owners and tenants concerning rents, services, and evictions.

[23] New York City and the state government began dual administration of rent regulation in 1962, and 75,000 expensive apartments were gradually deregulated by 1968.

[23] The Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 (ETPA) expanded rent stabilization to other parts of New York State.

A 1971 law took away New York City's ability to regulate rents and gave the power to the state government.

The New York State Legislature enacted the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 in June of that year.

[35] In the 21st century, there has been a trend of removing rent-regulated or rent-controlled status from apartments in New York City, converting them into market rate units.