New York passing sweeping new rent control rules

[the urban politician]

Interestingly, this affects not just NYC, but the State of New York. The most sweeping pro-tenant legislation possibly in the entire US just passed:

NYC Tenants Get a Rent-Law Blessing That Landlords See as Curse
By Henry Goldman
June 12, 2019
N.Y. lawmakers agree on tenant protections, rental rules
Landlords say changes will plunge city into 1970s-era chaos

Millions of New Yorkers woke up on Wednesday to the prospect of a city where their rents will barely rise, they’re safe from eviction and they’ll never have to put down more than a month’s security deposit.

Their landlords had a different kind of morning.

“Most of these lawmakers were not alive in the 1970s and 1980s to see what legislation like this did to the city’s housing,” Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 landlords, said in a statement. “Buildings will fall into disrepair, owners will not have the funds to make necessary repairs to these aging buildings, and thousands of local jobs will be lost.”

The New York state legislature on Tuesday agreed on a package of sweeping tenant protections and rent regulations that would be the biggest rewrite of tenant law in decades. Current rules expire June 15, and these are intended to be permanent. Governor Andrew Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, said he intends to sign them.

The measure, produced by a legislature in which Democrats won control last year, would repeal provisions that remove units from rent stabilization when rent crosses a high threshold or when the unit becomes vacant, or if the tenant’s income is $200,000 or higher in the preceding two years. It also eliminates the “vacancy bonus” provision that allows a property owner to raise rents as much as 20% each time a unit becomes vacant.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...law-blessing-that-landlords-see-as-curse