54 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2019
PRESS HOME
NY RENT REFORM HAS LI IMPACT
continued from page 53
Rosemary Rivera, co-executive director
of Citizen Action of New York, calls
the rules a “giant first step toward
protecting tenants and affirming that
housing is a human right."
Adriene Holder, attorney in charge of
civil practice at The Legal Aid Society,
says the deal will “advance historic
housing reforms across the state.”
“Tenant advocacy groups and the
leaders in the Democrat-controlled
State Senate and Assembly see the
new law as a victory,” Matthew Doty,
a principal at Berdon, writes. “However,
real estate trade organizations
are already sounding the alarm that
this could hurt the dwindling stock
and quality of affordable housing."
Long Island has what many view as
a rental shortage. More than a third
of Nassau and Suffolk communities
have under 10 percent rental
homes, according to Long Island’s
Rental Housing Crisis, a 2013 study
done for the Long Island Community
Foundation, the Regional Plan Association
and Ford Foundation.
Rent control in New York City applies
to certain types of apartments there,
allowing landlords to raise the rent
by a certain amount and giving tenants
the right to remain there.
Rent stabilization laws for apartments
built before 1974 also apply
to portions of Westchester and Nassau,
such as the villages of Mineola,
Hempstead and Great Neck. These
areas enacted laws allowing them to
implement stabilization regulations
as long as their community has less
than a 5 percent vacancy rate.
“Many of the loopholes that were
allowed have now been closed,” Pally
says of basic rental regulations. “You
used to be able to increase the rent
based on capital improvements."
The new law limits rent increases
from 6 percent to 2 percent in New
York City based on capital improvements
and from 15 percent to 2 percent
in other counties.
“It may cause a developer or owner
not to make the capital improvements
necessary, because they can’t
automatically recoup the expenses by
raising the rent,” Pally says.
While the new rules don’t target
affordable housing, Pally says they
could negatively impact these projects
on Long Island.
"Affordable housing builders may have
more difficulty getting financing for
their projects,” Pally says. “The bank
or whoever’s financing wants to make
sure they recover their financing. The
more rules and restrictions, the more
difficult it is to get your money back —
and get money in the first place.”
Landlords can only charge one month
security deposit under the new rules,
which might make them more reluctant
to rent to tenants with bad credit.
“If you had someone with credit problems,
you made them pay a higher
security deposit in the past, to ensure
the landlord would get paid," Pally
says. “Now you can’t do that anymore.”
The Real Estate Board of New York
has indicated it plans to file suit
against the state related to new regulations,
and other suits may follow.
“They have a lot of projects already
in the ground,” Pally says. “Those will
move forward. The problem is whether
they have difficulty getting financing for
new projects. We won’t know that until
they start to develop new projects.”
“If you’re on the tenant side, a lot of these rules
may be, in your opinion, fairer," says Mitch Pally.
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