BILL NUMBER:S3119

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.