"In the hundreds of buildings that we have investigated to date, we have never seen a scheme as blatant, willful, and egregious as this one."
Rent stabilization is the largest affordable housing program in New York City and sets limits on how much landlords can legally charge tenants in rent.
But the vast majority of them were never subject to
rent stabilization, despite the specific language included in the law.
Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which upheld the law as a legitimate exercise of state regulatory power, New York's
rent stabilization scheme remains in place.
"In 2015, when de Blasio influenced the RGB to promulgate the first-ever rent freeze in the 55-year history of
rent stabilization, he told reporters that he had to raise the rents of his three tenants on top of the more than $100,000 in rents he pockets at the two private homes he owns in Park Slope to cover repairs and operating expenses.
While
rent stabilization needs a building to have six or more residential units to come into effect for a particular building, ETPA buildings that were IMD's can have as few as three units.
James and Jeanne Harmon, owners of a five-story brownstone in the Central Park West Historical District, sued the city in 2008, alleging that New York
Rent Stabilization Law violated their Fifth Amendment rights under the Takings Clause, which says that private property may not "be taken for public use, without just compensation."
The legislation would include provisions that would return these units to
rent stabilization, that would establish a mechanism for determining rent and overcharges and that would bring order and clarity to the owners and occupants of the 40,000 units affected by the Court of Appeals decision.
Hempstead Plaza exited the Mitchell Lama Program in November 2006 and because subject to
rent stabilization as per the 1974 Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA).
Jack Freund, vice president of the
Rent Stabilization Association, also recognizes that the plan gives needed support to developers.
Rent stabilization often significantly diminishes a rental building's cash flow and consequently can seriously dampen its value.