De Blasio Calls for Expansion of Tenant Protections

The de Blasio administration has made recent efforts to increase protections for rent-stabilized tenants, including free legal representation for tenants in up to 15 neighborhoods. It’s also launching a new Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force with State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to combat illegal practices that push tenants out of their apartments.

As rent laws come up for renewal on June 15, the mayor’s latest focus has been to call for stronger rent laws that are intended to limit deregulation. Among the key changes he wants are the following:

Eliminate high-rent vacancy decontrol. The city is calling for the elimination of vacancy decontrol. Currently, a vacant apartment with a rent of $2,500 per month may be deregulated.

Eliminate the vacancy allowance. The city is calling for eliminating the 20 percent increase in monthly rent when tenants vacate an apartment.

Make IAI and MCI increases temporary. The city is calling for the current permanent rent increases for building-wide or individual apartment improvements to be made temporary. Costs from increased services or improvements to individual apartments (IAIs) would be spread over 10 years, while building-wide or system improvements (MCIs) could be spread over seven years. Long-term rent would be unaffected, and would reset after the fixed period.