Assembly votes to extend rent regulations

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. The bill would also slash in half the percentage increases landlords may impose on new tenants. “Every year more than 10,000 rent-regulated apartments are lost because of loopholes in the rent laws,” Silver said. “This legislation will help keep middle-class families from being priced out of their homes and communities.” The bill now heads to the Republican Senate for consideration, where it will likely face a tougher battle. The current rent regulations are set to expire June 15; this bill would extend them through 2016. TRD