S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4764
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             February 23, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M.  of  A. L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the
   Committee on Housing
 
 AN ACT to amend  the  local  emergency  housing  rent  control  act,  in
   relation to rent regulation laws
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21  of  the  laws  of
 1962,  constituting  the  local  emergency  housing rent control act, as
 amended by chapter 82 of the laws of 2003 and the closing  paragraph  as
 amended  by  chapter  422  of  the  laws  of 2010, is amended to read as
 follows:
   5. Authority for local rent control legislation. Each  city  having  a
 population  of one million or more, acting through its local legislative
 body, may adopt and amend local laws or ordinances  in  respect  of  the
 establishment  or  designation  of  a  city housing rent agency. When it
 deems such action to be desirable or necessitated by local conditions in
 order to carry out the purposes of this section, such  city,  except  as
 hereinafter  provided, acting through its local legislative body and not
 otherwise, may adopt and amend local laws or ordinances  in  respect  of
 the  regulation  and  control  of  residential  rents, including but not
 limited to provision for the establishment  and  adjustment  of  maximum
 rents,  the  classification of housing accommodations, the regulation of
 evictions, and the enforcement of such local  laws  or  ordinances.  The
 validity  of  any  such local laws or ordinances, and the rules or regu-
 lations promulgated in accordance therewith, shall not  be  affected  by
 and need not be consistent with the state emergency housing rent control
 law  or  with rules and regulations of the state division of housing and
 community renewal.
   Notwithstanding any local law  or  ordinance,  housing  accommodations
 which became vacant on or after July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one
 or  which  hereafter become vacant shall be subject to the provisions of

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD05504-01-3
              

 A. 4764                             2
 
 the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four,  provided,
 however,  that  this  provision shall not apply or become effective with
 respect to housing accommodations which, by local law or ordinance,  are
 made  directly  subject to regulation and control by a city housing rent
 agency and such agency determines or finds  that  the  housing  accommo-
 dations  became  vacant because the landlord or any person acting on his
 behalf, with intent to cause the tenant to vacate, engaged in any course
 of conduct (including but not limited to, interruption or discontinuance
 of essential  services)  which  interfered  with  or  disturbed  or  was
 intended  to  interfere  with  or  disturb the comfort, repose, peace or
 quiet of the tenant in his use or  occupancy  of  the  housing  accommo-
 dations.  The  removal  of any housing accommodation from regulation and
 control of rents pursuant to the vacancy exemption provided for in  this
 paragraph shall not constitute or operate as a ground for the subjection
 to more stringent regulation and control of any housing accommodation in
 such  property  or  in  any  other  property owned by the same landlord,
 notwithstanding any prior agreement to the contrary by the landlord. The
 vacancy exemption provided for in this paragraph shall  not  arise  with
 respect  to  any  rented plot or parcel of land otherwise subject to the
 provisions of this act, by reason of a transfer of title and  possession
 occurring  on  or  after  July  first, nineteen hundred seventy-one of a
 dwelling located on such plot or parcel and owned by  the  tenant  where
 such  transfer  of  title  and  possession  is  made  to a member of the
 tenant's immediate family provided that the member of the tenant's imme-
 diate family occupies the dwelling with the tenant prior to the transfer
 of title and possession for a continuous period of two years.
   The term "immediate family" shall include a husband, wife, son, daugh-
 ter, stepson, stepdaughter, father, mother, father-in-law or  mother-in-
 law.
   [Notwithstanding  the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall here-
 after provide for the regulation and control of  residential  rents  and
 eviction in respect of any housing accommodations which are (1) present-
 ly exempt from such regulation and control or (2) hereafter decontrolled
 either by operation of law or by a city housing rent agency, by order or
 otherwise. No housing accommodations presently subject to regulation and
 control  pursuant  to  local laws or ordinances adopted or amended under
 authority of this subdivision shall hereafter be by local law  or  ordi-
 nance  or  by rule or regulation which has not been theretofore approved
 by the state commissioner of housing and community renewal subjected  to
 more  stringent or restrictive provisions of regulation and control than
 those presently in effect.
   Notwithstanding any other provision of law, on and after the effective
 date of this paragraph, a city having a population  of  one  million  or
 more  shall not, either through its local legislative body or otherwise,
 adopt or amend local laws or ordinances with respect to  the  regulation
 and control of residential rents and eviction, including but not limited
 to  provision for the establishment and adjustment of rents, the classi-
 fication of housing accommodations, the regulation of evictions, and the
 enforcement of such local laws or ordinances, or otherwise adopt laws or
 ordinances pursuant to the provisions of this act, the emergency  tenant
 protection  act  of  nineteen  seventy-four,  the New York city rent and
 rehabilitation law or the New York city rent stabilization  law,  except
 to  the extent that such city for the purpose of reviewing the continued
 need for the existing regulation and control of residential rents or  to
 remove  a  classification  of housing accommodation from such regulation
 and control adopts or amends local laws or ordinances pursuant to subdi-
 A. 4764                             3

 vision three of section one of this act, section three of the  emergency
 tenant  protection  act  of nineteen seventy-four, section 26-415 of the
 New York city rent and  rehabilitation  law,  and  sections  26-502  and
 26-520  of  the New York city rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred
 sixty-nine.]
   Notwithstanding the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall subject
 to such regulation and control any housing accommodation  which  is  not
 occupied  by  the  tenant in possession as his or her primary residence;
 provided, however, that such housing accommodation not occupied  by  the
 tenant  in  possession as his or her primary residence shall continue to
 be subject to regulation and control as provided for herein  unless  the
 city  housing  rent  agency  issues an order decontrolling such accommo-
 dation, which the agency shall do upon application by the landlord when-
 ever it is established by any facts  and  circumstances  which,  in  the
 judgment  of  the  agency, may have a bearing upon the question of resi-
 dence, that the tenant maintains his or her primary  residence  at  some
 place  other  than  at  such  housing accommodation. For the purposes of
 determining primary residency, a tenant who  is  a  victim  of  domestic
 violence,  as defined in section four hundred fifty-nine-a of the social
 services law, who has left the unit because of such  violence,  and  who
 asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall be deemed
 to be occupying the unit as his or her primary residence.
   §  2.  This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
 the amendments to subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of  the  laws
 of  1962  made by section one of this act shall remain in full force and
 effect only so 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.