Less than a month after losing its legal bid to overturn the Rent Guidelines Board’s rent freeze, the landlord coalition Rent Stabilization Association is calling for rent increases on all one-year and two-year leases.
The group wants one-year leases to go up by four percent, and two-year leases to increase by eight percent, Real Estate Weekly reported. It will present its case to the RGB at its meeting on Thursday evening, according to the publication.
Over the past three years, owners of rent-stabilized apartments have seen their operating costs jump by 11 percent, according to the group’s president Joseph Strasburg, who cited RGB data.
“Over that same period, the RGB has limited rent increases to 1%, including consecutive rent freezes in 2015 and 2016 – depriving landlords of the only revenue source they need to pay property taxes, which de Blasio has raised every year, and to maintain, repair and preserve affordable housing for their tenants,” he said.
The group claims the RGB — and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who appoints its members — is using rent freezes as a political tool, and there is no rationale for a third consecutive rent freeze.
Last month, a New York State Supreme Court upheld a rent freeze on certain one-year leases, rejecting the RSA’s arguments that the RGB didn’t have the authority to keep rents flat.
In February, an appeals court blocked the de Blasio’s administration from raising water bills on large landlords. [Real Estate Weekly] — Miriam Hall