5 ms·

The type of "price controls" that you are railing against do not exist in New York City and to the best of my knowledge have never existed there. Maybe during

The type of "price controls" that you are railing against do not exist in New York City and to the best of my knowledge have never existed there. Maybe during World War II.

dantheman 11y ago
Here you go: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/resources/faq/rentstab.html http://www.nycrgb.org/html/resources/faq/rentstab.html
- jellicle 11y ago
  Urgh, when I saw the downvotes I figured it would be people who knew nothing about NYC's rent laws except had heard the phrase "rent stabilized" and decided for themselves what it meant. And I was right. Every vacant apartment in the city can be rented by the landlord at market rates. The price controls complained of by the top commenter do not exist. There is no such thing as a law saying "This vacant apartment? You can only charge $1000 for it, even though it would normally rent for $3000." Is that clear? Or would you rather just downvote, despite not knowing anything about the city's rent laws?
  - evanpw 11y ago
    This seems to explain the rules determining the rent you can charge for a vacant rent-stabilized apartment: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html. Am I misunderstanding this page?
  - bradleyjg 11y ago
    That's simply not true. Vacancy decontrol for a rent stabilized apartment only kicks in if the legal rent for an apartment has reached $2500. So it is very much the case that a vacant apartment can be subject to rent stabilization and cannot be rented for whatever the market will bear. See this page for worked examples: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html
  - akgerber 11y ago
    That's completely untrue. I live in a rent-stabilized apartment I rented at (moderately) below-market rates three years ago. Had the landlord not done what they claim are $40,000 worth of renovations, they would have had to rent it to me at something like half the market rate.
  - nemo44x 11y ago
    I don't think that's entirely true. Almost every new building has to have 20% of the capacity rented to "Affordable living" standards - far below market rate.
URSpider94 11y ago
I'm not sure what you are referring to, but New York definitely has two levels of rent pricing controls: rent control and rent stabilization. With rent control, the rent never increases, it is fixed for the duration of tenancy, and can even be handed down (once) to a family member. Once that tenant or their heir vacates the apartment, then the rent goes to market rate with no further regulation. With rent stabilization, the city sets an annual percentage increase for the rent, which is typically not as high as the market-rate appreciation rate. When a tenant moves out, the landlord can raise the rent by a vacancy allowance, as well as an adder of 1/40th of any improvements made to the unit. Once the annual rent exceeds $2,500 per month, the unit is considered market-rate, and becomes unregulated (however, regulation continues until the current tenant moves out). SOURCE: I was a landlord in NYC. In my building, I had one rent-controlled unit occupied by a senior citizen who never paid rent (she needed the $100/mo more than I did), and 80% of the other units were rent-stabilized.
- tzs 11y ago
  Hmm...from that description it sounds like eventually every unit will end up unregulated. Is there any mechanism that creates new rent controlled or rent stabilized units, or converts an unregulated unit into a rent stabilized or rent controlled unit?
  - bradleyjg 11y ago
    The mechanism for new rent stabilized units are set asides in exchange for tax credits and/or zoning variances in new buildings. They end up costing the city a lot more in forgone property taxes than residents save in rent, but nonetheless seem to keep getting renewed.

The type of "price controls" that you are railing against do not exist in New York City and to the best of my knowledge have never existed there. Maybe during World War II.

dantheman 11y ago

Here you go: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/resources/faq/rentstab.html http://www.nycrgb.org/html/resources/faq/rentstab.html

jellicle 11y ago
Urgh, when I saw the downvotes I figured it would be people who knew nothing about NYC's rent laws except had heard the phrase "rent stabilized" and decided for themselves what it meant. And I was right. Every vacant apartment in the city can be rented by the landlord at market rates. The price controls complained of by the top commenter do not exist. There is no such thing as a law saying "This vacant apartment? You can only charge $1000 for it, even though it would normally rent for $3000." Is that clear? Or would you rather just downvote, despite not knowing anything about the city's rent laws?
- evanpw 11y ago
  This seems to explain the rules determining the rent you can charge for a vacant rent-stabilized apartment: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html. Am I misunderstanding this page?
- bradleyjg 11y ago
  That's simply not true. Vacancy decontrol for a rent stabilized apartment only kicks in if the legal rent for an apartment has reached $2500. So it is very much the case that a vacant apartment can be subject to rent stabilization and cannot be rented for whatever the market will bear. See this page for worked examples: http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/vacancy.html
- akgerber 11y ago
  That's completely untrue. I live in a rent-stabilized apartment I rented at (moderately) below-market rates three years ago. Had the landlord not done what they claim are $40,000 worth of renovations, they would have had to rent it to me at something like half the market rate.
- nemo44x 11y ago
  I don't think that's entirely true. Almost every new building has to have 20% of the capacity rented to "Affordable living" standards - far below market rate.

URSpider94 11y ago

I'm not sure what you are referring to, but New York definitely has two levels of rent pricing controls: rent control and rent stabilization. With rent control, the rent never increases, it is fixed for the duration of tenancy, and can even be handed down (once) to a family member. Once that tenant or their heir vacates the apartment, then the rent goes to market rate with no further regulation. With rent stabilization, the city sets an annual percentage increase for the rent, which is typically not as high as the market-rate appreciation rate. When a tenant moves out, the landlord can raise the rent by a vacancy allowance, as well as an adder of 1/40th of any improvements made to the unit. Once the annual rent exceeds $2,500 per month, the unit is considered market-rate, and becomes unregulated (however, regulation continues until the current tenant moves out). SOURCE: I was a landlord in NYC. In my building, I had one rent-controlled unit occupied by a senior citizen who never paid rent (she needed the $100/mo more than I did), and 80% of the other units were rent-stabilized.

tzs 11y ago
Hmm...from that description it sounds like eventually every unit will end up unregulated. Is there any mechanism that creates new rent controlled or rent stabilized units, or converts an unregulated unit into a rent stabilized or rent controlled unit?
- bradleyjg 11y ago
  The mechanism for new rent stabilized units are set asides in exchange for tax credits and/or zoning variances in new buildings. They end up costing the city a lot more in forgone property taxes than residents save in rent, but nonetheless seem to keep getting renewed.