Though courts on all levels have routinely upheld rent stabilization laws, and despite the fact that his own case has been dismissed by two state courts, James Harmon has caught the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court in his bid to fight the regulations. But according to the New York Law Journal, Harmon isn’t any more likely to win his case than previous challengers – even after the Supreme Court requested the city file a response explaining the courts’ aforementioned dismissals. [more]

James Harmon, a former federal prosecutor who owns a townhouse on West 76th Street near Central Park, could be going before the U.S. Supreme Court to fight rent regulation.

The New York Times reported that Harmon has lost twice in lower courts, including in the Court of Appeals in Manhattan in September, but the Supreme Court has taken notice of the case and asked the city and state to file answers to Harmon’s petition to be heard.

Harmon, who lives on the parlor floor of the house and rents out the top floors as six one-bedroom apartments, claims that the rent laws are a “taking” of his property. [more]

More New Jersey towns have rent-control rules than any other state in the country, but according to the Wall Street Journal many of those municipalities are moving to eradicate parts of the law.

Last week two cities, Hoboken and Bayonne, voted to soften rent-control rules, with the former limiting the amount tenants can recoup from past overcharges and the latter decontrolling apartments after tenants move out. The state’s controlled units typically have rent appreciations that correspond with the Consumer Price Index, or about 2 percent, per year. In recent years, nine towns have chosen to phase out the laws entirely. [more]

A tentative deal to renew New York State’s rent regulation laws and cap property taxes for homeowners emerged from Albany yesterday and is expected to move to the Senate and Assembly floors today for a vote, according to the New York Times. The details of the so-called “framework” are as follows: much to the dismay of die-hard tenant-advocates, vacancy decontrol is staying, and landlords will still be allowed to deregulate apartments when tenants’ monthly rent and annual household income reach certain thresholds. But those thresholds are being increased to $2,500 from $2,000, and to $200,000 from $175,000, respectively. Landlords will also be held accountable by state housing officials for how much they spend to upgrade rent-stabilized apartments before they’re allowed to charge tenants for building improvements. [more]

Albany lawmakers have reached a tentative agreement on statewide rent regulations and a property tax cap, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said today. According to NY1, Skelos said there’s a “framework” in place and that an official deal is hopefully near. The state’s rent laws expired this past Friday after months of negotiations failed to produce new legislation that both the Democrat-led Assembly and the Republican-led Senate could agree upon. [more]

There’s less than a week left before the state’s rent regulation laws expire, and according the Post, Albany lawmakers are still so far from reaching an agreement that they’ve begun considering a short-term extension that would buy them some time to continue negotiating. The current laws, which expire June 15, govern the prices on approximately 1.1 million rental apartments in the city. Gov. Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have been pushing to expand tenant protections, while Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos is advocating for a more landlord-friendly plan that sticks to the status quo. [more]

As next week’s expiration of the state’s rent regulation laws approaches, a new state-sponsored report has revealed that nearly two-thirds of New York City’s 2 million rental apartments still enjoy regulated rental rates. According to the Post, the report, by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, found 1.4 million rental apartments to be either rent-stabilized, publicly-owned or taxpayer-subsidized — and that’s after the roughly 10,000 units that have been deregulated over the course of the last decade. The impending June 15 deadline for rent regulation to be renewed is threatening some 1 million New York City apartments as lawmakers, tenant advocates and landlords try to hammer out an agreement on income and monthly rent thresholds for decontrol.
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The State Assembly has passed a bill to extend and bolster the city’s rent regulation laws through 2016, Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office announced yesterday evening. The bill would repeal vacancy decontrol, which allows landlords to deregulate apartments when they become vacant or when the rent tips above $2,000 monthly. It would also raise the thresholds at which landlords can deregulate apartments based on tenants’ income. Landlords can currently begin charging market-rate rents when a tenant makes more than $175,000 per year and pays at least $2,000 in monthly rent; under the new rules, those limits would be increased to $300,000 and $3,000. TRD [more]

The Real Estate Board of New York is warming to the idea of an increase in the city’s $2,000 rent deregulation limit after years of opposing rent regulations altogether, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We are prepared to look at a higher number,” Steven Spinola, REBNY’s president, told the Journal. “It depends what the rest of the package is.” The stance represents a major shift for the real estate industry’s leading trade association, which has long been fighting off efforts by advocacy groups to limit landlords’ ability to charge market-rate rents in vacant rent-regulated apartments once their rents reached the a certain rent threshold. Comments

With New York’s rent-regulation laws set to expire June 15, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has released a new report that supports their extension. Entitled, “The New Housing Emergency,” the report (in full after the jump) says loopholes in the city’s current rent-stabilization rules — like vacancy decontrol and rent increases due to renovations — result in the loss of more than 10,000 rent-regulated apartments per year. The median income for tenants of the 1.02 million rent-regulated apartments in New York City is $38,000, according to the report. TRD  [more]