Professor david reiss
“The rent-reform law is very clear that there shall be no more vacancy bonuses and my misgiving is that we’d be using this vote to circumvent that and treat vacancy bonuses the same as renewal leases when the law is very clear,” said Leah Goodridge, one of the tenant representatives on the board. The discussion reflected a fundamental difference among RGB members about what’s in the law that empowers them. The only mention of it during the RGB’s public meeting on Thursday was toward the end, after several members had already voted for the proposal that included it.
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The RGB Chair, Brooklyn Law School Professor David Reiss, did not respond to a request for information about his approach to the topic, which was discussed with RGB members offline before the public session last week. The Rent Guidelines Board says it relied on DHCR’s interpretation. This guideline is subject to the limitation that no more than one guideline adjustment can be added in one guideline year.”ĭHCR did not respond to a City Limits request for an explanation of its interpretation of the law.
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“However, if authorized by the board, a one or two-year lease guideline may be applied and added to the previous tenant’s legal rent. Last year’s rent law “eliminated the statutory vacancy rate and does not permit Rent Guidelines Boards to establish a separate vacancy rate,” it read. A Division of Homes and Community Renewal fact sheet issued in October pronounced a different interpretation from the ones the legislature, REBNY and the AG had. Obituaries for the vacancy bonuses appeared in several places.Ī legislative memo that accompanied the law in the State Assembly said that it both “repeals vacancy bonus increases, which allows automatic rent increases of up to 20 percent upon vacancy” and “prohibits a Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) from setting vacancy bonus rent increases.”Īn analysis of the final law by the Real Estate Board of New York, a group that supports developers and landlords, concluded that “elimination of the vacancy allowance,” was part of the law and that it “prohibits a rent guidelines board (RGB) from instituting vacancy allowances.”Ī brochure issued last year by the New York Attorney General titled “Changes in the Rent Law” agreed: “Vacancy bonuses” it said “are now prohibited.”īut a dispute over the meaning of the vacancy provision has been brewing since the fall. After all, last year’s rent-regulation reform bill mandated that, “County rent guidelines boards shall no longer promulgate adjustments for vacancy leases unless otherwise authorized by this chapter,” and no other mention of an RGB’s role in vacancy adjustments appears to be made in that law. Tenant representatives on the Rent Guidelines Board were surprised by the move. But in future years, should the RGB permit renewal leases to rise, the rent on vacant apartments would, too.
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This year, the change has no concrete impact, since rents are frozen. This was achieved by subtracting a single word from the RGB’s preliminary order: A key heading in the document was changed from the phrase used in previous years, “proposed adjustment for renewal leases,” to “proposed adjustment for leases,” a shift that meant the adjustment applied both to new leases on vacant apartments and renewal leases on occupied units. With little explicit discussion, the board indicated that landlords could hike the rent on leases for vacant units as much as they could for leases on occupied apartments.