Bill Text: NY A03678 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Removes provisions that prohibit cities of one million or more from strengthening rent regulation laws to provide more comprehensive coverage than state laws.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - referred to housing [A03678 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-A03678-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          3678

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 28, 2021
                                       ___________

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

        AN ACT to amend  the  local  emergency  housing  rent  control  act,  in
          relation to rent regulation laws

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

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21  of  the  laws  of
     2  1962,  constituting  the  local  emergency  housing rent control act, as
     3  amended by chapter 82 of the laws of 2003 and the closing  paragraph  as
     4  amended  by  chapter  422  of  the  laws  of 2010, is amended to read as
     5  follows:
     6    5. Authority for local rent control legislation. Each  city  having  a
     7  population  of one million or more, acting through its local legislative
     8  body, may adopt and amend local laws or ordinances  in  respect  of  the
     9  establishment  or  designation  of  a  city housing rent agency. When it
    10  deems such action to be desirable or necessitated by local conditions in
    11  order to carry out the purposes of this section, such  city,  except  as
    12  hereinafter  provided, acting through its local legislative body and not
    13  otherwise, may adopt and amend local laws or ordinances  in  respect  of
    14  the  regulation  and  control  of  residential  rents, including but not
    15  limited to provision for the establishment  and  adjustment  of  maximum
    16  rents,  the  classification of housing accommodations, the regulation of
    17  evictions, and the enforcement of such local  laws  or  ordinances.  The
    18  validity  of  any  such local laws or ordinances, and the rules or regu-
    19  lations promulgated in accordance therewith, shall not  be  affected  by
    20  and need not be consistent with the state emergency housing rent control
    21  law  or  with rules and regulations of the state division of housing and
    22  community renewal.
    23    Notwithstanding any local law  or  ordinance,  housing  accommodations
    24  which became vacant on or after July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one
    25  or  which  hereafter become vacant shall be subject to the provisions of

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01472-01-1
        A. 3678                             2

     1  the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four,  provided,
     2  however,  that  this  provision shall not apply or become effective with
     3  respect to housing accommodations which, by local law or ordinance,  are
     4  made  directly  subject to regulation and control by a city housing rent
     5  agency and such agency determines or finds  that  the  housing  accommo-
     6  dations  became  vacant because the landlord or any person acting on his
     7  behalf, with intent to cause the tenant to vacate, engaged in any course
     8  of conduct (including but not limited to, interruption or discontinuance
     9  of essential  services)  which  interfered  with  or  disturbed  or  was
    10  intended  to  interfere  with  or  disturb the comfort, repose, peace or
    11  quiet of the tenant in his use or  occupancy  of  the  housing  accommo-
    12  dations.  The  removal  of any housing accommodation from regulation and
    13  control of rents pursuant to the vacancy exemption provided for in  this
    14  paragraph shall not constitute or operate as a ground for the subjection
    15  to more stringent regulation and control of any housing accommodation in
    16  such  property  or  in  any  other  property owned by the same landlord,
    17  notwithstanding any prior agreement to the contrary by the landlord. The
    18  vacancy exemption provided for in this paragraph shall  not  arise  with
    19  respect  to  any  rented plot or parcel of land otherwise subject to the
    20  provisions of this act, by reason of a transfer of title and  possession
    21  occurring  on  or  after  July  first, nineteen hundred seventy-one of a
    22  dwelling located on such plot or parcel and owned by  the  tenant  where
    23  such  transfer  of  title  and  possession  is  made  to a member of the
    24  tenant's immediate family provided that the member of the tenant's imme-
    25  diate family occupies the dwelling with the tenant prior to the transfer
    26  of title and possession for a continuous period of two years.
    27    The term "immediate family" shall include a husband, wife, son, daugh-
    28  ter, stepson, stepdaughter, father, mother, father-in-law or  mother-in-
    29  law.
    30    [Notwithstanding  the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall here-
    31  after provide for the regulation and control of  residential  rents  and
    32  eviction in respect of any housing accommodations which are (1) present-
    33  ly exempt from such regulation and control or (2) hereafter decontrolled
    34  either by operation of law or by a city housing rent agency, by order or
    35  otherwise. No housing accommodations presently subject to regulation and
    36  control  pursuant  to  local laws or ordinances adopted or amended under
    37  authority of this subdivision shall hereafter be by local law  or  ordi-
    38  nance  or  by rule or regulation which has not been theretofore approved
    39  by the state commissioner of housing and community renewal subjected  to
    40  more  stringent or restrictive provisions of regulation and control than
    41  those presently in effect.
    42    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, on and after the effective
    43  date of this paragraph, a city having a population  of  one  million  or
    44  more  shall not, either through its local legislative body or otherwise,
    45  adopt or amend local laws or ordinances with respect to  the  regulation
    46  and control of residential rents and eviction, including but not limited
    47  to  provision for the establishment and adjustment of rents, the classi-
    48  fication of housing accommodations, the regulation of evictions, and the
    49  enforcement of such local laws or ordinances, or otherwise adopt laws or
    50  ordinances pursuant to the provisions of this act, the emergency  tenant
    51  protection  act  of  nineteen  seventy-four,  the New York city rent and
    52  rehabilitation law or the New York city rent stabilization  law,  except
    53  to  the extent that such city for the purpose of reviewing the continued
    54  need for the existing regulation and control of residential rents or  to
    55  remove  a  classification  of housing accommodation from such regulation
    56  and control adopts or amends local laws or ordinances pursuant to subdi-
        A. 3678                             3

     1  vision three of section one of this act, section three of the  emergency
     2  tenant  protection  act  of nineteen seventy-four, section 26-415 of the
     3  New York city rent and  rehabilitation  law,  and  sections  26-502  and
     4  26-520  of  the New York city rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred
     5  sixty-nine.]
     6    Notwithstanding the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall subject
     7  to such regulation and control any housing accommodation  which  is  not
     8  occupied  by  the  tenant in possession as his or her primary residence;
     9  provided, however, that such housing accommodation not occupied  by  the
    10  tenant  in  possession as his or her primary residence shall continue to
    11  be subject to regulation and control as provided for herein  unless  the
    12  city  housing  rent  agency  issues an order decontrolling such accommo-
    13  dation, which the agency shall do upon application by the landlord when-
    14  ever it is established by any facts  and  circumstances  which,  in  the
    15  judgment  of  the  agency, may have a bearing upon the question of resi-
    16  dence, that the tenant maintains his or her primary  residence  at  some
    17  place  other  than  at  such  housing accommodation. For the purposes of
    18  determining primary residency, a tenant who  is  a  victim  of  domestic
    19  violence,  as defined in section four hundred fifty-nine-a of the social
    20  services law, who has left the unit because of such  violence,  and  who
    21  asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall be deemed
    22  to be occupying the unit as his or her primary residence.
    23    §  2.  This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
    24  the amendments to subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of  the  laws
    25  of  1962  made by section one of this act shall remain in full force and
    26  effect only so long as the public emergency requiring the regulation and
    27  control of residential rents and evictions  continues,  as  provided  in
    28  subdivision  3  of section 1 of the local emergency housing rent control
    29  act.