Bill Text: NY A01642 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides that the determination of legal regulated base date rent at the four-year lookback shall be determined by either the survey sampling method or the default method if there is fraud.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-10 - referred to housing [A01642 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A01642-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1642

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 10, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  ROSENTHAL  --  read once and referred to the
          Committee on Housing

        AN ACT to amend chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the  emer-
          gency  tenant  protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation to
          providing for the determination of legal regulated base date rent  for
          certain purposes

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The opening paragraph of paragraph 1 of  subdivision  a  of
     2  section 12 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting
     3  the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, as amended
     4  by  section  1  of  part F chapter 36 of the laws of 2019, is amended to
     5  read as follows:
     6    Subject to the conditions and limitations of this paragraph, any owner
     7  of housing accommodations in a city having a population of less than one
     8  million or a town or village as to which an emergency has been  declared
     9  pursuant  to  section  three,  who, upon complaint of a tenant or of the
    10  state division of housing and community renewal, is found by  the  state
    11  division  of  housing and community renewal, after a reasonable opportu-
    12  nity to be heard, to have collected an overcharge above the rent author-
    13  ized for a housing accommodation subject to this act shall be liable  to
    14  the  tenant  for a penalty equal to three times the amount of such over-
    15  charge.  If the owner establishes by a  preponderance  of  the  evidence
    16  that the overcharge was neither willful nor attributable to [his] negli-
    17  gence,  the state division of housing and community renewal shall estab-
    18  lish the penalty as the amount of the overcharge plus  interest  at  the
    19  rate of interest payable on a judgment pursuant to section five thousand
    20  four  of  the  civil  practice  law and rules. After a complaint of rent
    21  overcharge has been filed and served on an owner, the voluntary  adjust-
    22  ment  of  the rent and/or the voluntary tender of a refund of rent over-
    23  charges shall not be considered by the division of housing and community

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04191-01-5
        A. 1642                             2

     1  renewal or a court of competent jurisdiction as evidence that the  over-
     2  charge  was  not willful.  (i) Except as to complaints filed pursuant to
     3  clause (ii) of this paragraph, the legal regulated rent for purposes  of
     4  determining  an  overcharge, shall be deemed to be the rent indicated in
     5  the most recent reliable annual registration statement for a rent stabi-
     6  lized tenant filed and served upon the tenant six or more years prior to
     7  the most recent registration statement, (or, if more recently filed, the
     8  initial registration statement) plus in each case any subsequent  lawful
     9  increases  and  adjustments.    The  division  of  housing and community
    10  renewal  or  a  court  of  competent  jurisdiction,   in   investigating
    11  complaints  of overcharge and in determining legal regulated rent, shall
    12  consider all available rent history which  is  reasonably  necessary  to
    13  make such determinations. If there is an overcharge, the legal regulated
    14  base  date  rent at the four-year lookback shall be determined by either
    15  the survey sampling method or the default method if there is fraud. (ii)
    16  As to complaints filed within ninety days of the initial registration of
    17  a housing accommodation, the legal regulated rent for purposes of deter-
    18  mining an overcharge shall be deemed to be the rent charged on the  date
    19  six  years  prior to the date of the initial registration of the housing
    20  accommodation (or, if the housing accommodation was subject to this  act
    21  for  less than six years, the initial legal regulated rent) plus in each
    22  case, any lawful increases and adjustments. Where the  rent  charged  on
    23  the  date six years prior to the date of the initial registration of the
    24  accommodation cannot be established, such rent shall be  established  by
    25  the division.
    26    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.