NY State Senate Bill 2021-S4456

Senate Bill S4456

2021-2022 Legislative Session

Precludes owners from collecting further rent increases if they fail to pay their housing unit fee

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Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Housing, Construction And Community Development Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 05, 2022	referred to housing, construction and community development
Feb 04, 2021	referred to housing, construction and community development

co-Sponsors

2021-S4456 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Housing, Construction And Community Development
Law Section:: New York City Administrative Code
Laws Affected:: Amd §26-517.1, NYC Ad Cd; amd §8, Emerg Ten Prot Act of 1974
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2013-2014: S7696
2015-2016: S2833
2017-2018: S3180
2019-2020: S1916

2021-S4456 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Precludes owners from collecting further rent increases if they fail to pay their housing unit fee.

2021-S4456 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S4456

SPONSOR: KRUEGER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York and the
emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation to
housing unit fees

 
PURPOSE:

The bill would ensure that the New York State Division of Housing and
Community Renewal (DHCR) has sufficient resources to administer and
enforce the rent regulation laws. This legislation would increase the
annual fee paid by owners of rent stabilized apartments in New York City
from $10 per unit to $30 per unit, and dedicate all increased revenues
to the DHCR's Office of Rent Administration (ORA) and Tenant Protection
Unit (TPU).

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 26-517.1 of the Administrative Code of the City
of New York by increasing the annual fee collected by the New York City
Department of Finance for each registered rent stabilized unit from $20
to $30.

Section 2 amends subdivisions c of section 8 of the Emergency Tenant
Protection Act of 1974 by increasing the annual fee collected by the New
York City Department of Finance for each registered rent stabilized unit
from $20 to $30. All revenues collected by the City Department of
Finance are transferred to the DHCR to cover the costs of administering
the rent regulation laws. Subdivision d of Section 8 of the Emergency
Tenant Protection Act of 1974 is amended to authorize the City of New
York to commence collection action against any building owner that fails
to pay the $30 per unit annual assessment.

Section 3 establishes that all increased revenues transferred each year
to the Commissioner of the DHCR shall be equally divided between the
DHCR's ORA and TPU, and includes a maintenance of effort requirement for
existing funding of the ORA and TPU.

Section 4 provides for the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The DHCR has sole responsibility for administering and enforcing New
York's rent regulation laws which enable almost two million people to
live in safe, stable, and affordable housing. The agency requires
significant additional resources to effectively fulfill its statutory
responsibilities. Due to substantial staff reductions and repeated budg-
et cuts over the last two decades, the DHCR simply does not have the
capacity it needs respond to complaints within reasonable=time-frames,
prevent fraud, or proactively investigate the majority of potential
violations.

Tenant advocates, building owners, and attorneys all regularly express
great frustration with the time periods they are forced to wait for DHCR
to respond to applications and complaints. Tenants and building owners
are frequently forced to wait a minimum of a year for the ORA to process
even the most basic cases, and complex cases frequently take five years
or longer to be concluded. Many report that they do not even attempt to
file cases with the agency because they know they will have to wait
years to receive a determination. Affordable housing advocates and
tenant attorneys have repeatedly documented that thousands of desperate-
ly needed rent regulated apartments are illegally deregulated each year,
and countless tenants are overcharged, because of DHCR's limited
resources.

In recent years, the leadership of DHCR undertaken a number of important
reforms to improve its administration of the rent laws. The most signif-
icant of these reforms was the establishment of the TPU in 2011 which is
exclusively focused on protecting tenants' rights and proactively
enforcing compliance. In its first two years, the TPU reregistered more
than 28,000 rent stabilized apartments, initiated comprehensive investi-
gations of building owners suspected of systematically overcharging
tenants, and reached major settlements with landlords who violated
harassment and discrimination laws. In order to build on these accom-
plishments, the TPU must have increased and dependable resources. The
TPU has less than two dozen employees to and is currently funded solely
with agency reappropriations. Due to its limited staff, the TPU has only
been able to investigate a small fraction of the cases brought to its
attention. It is simply impossible for even the most dedicated employees
to expeditiously and fairly enforce laws impacting the lives of almost
two million residents with such severe limitations.

Historically, the cost of administering and enforcing the rent laws has
been funded almost exclusively by the revenue generated by the annual
per unit fee paid by owners of rent stabilized apartments in New York
City. An annual fee is collected by the. New York City Department of
Finance from building owners for each rent stabilized apartment and then
transferred to the State DHCR. However, the annual unit fee of $10 has
not increased since 1984 when administration of all rent controlled and
rent stabilized units was transferred to the state. Simply increasing
the annual fee from $10 per apartment to $30 per apartment generate
almost $20 million each year for the ORA and TPU without placing an
onerous burden on building owners or tenants.

The higher unit fee would be factored into building owners' costs each
year when the New York City Rent Guidelines Board considers rent
increases, and any small rent increase that resulted would be far
outweighed by the benefits of significantly enhanced and efficient
services from the ORA and TPU.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019-2020: S.1916/A.1551 Epstein - Housing

2017-2018: S.3180/A.11104 Epstein - Housing

2015-2016: 5.2833 - Housing 2013-2014: 5.7696 - Housing

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2021-S4456 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4456
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 4, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  KRUEGER,  HOYLMAN, LIU, SERRANO -- read twice and
   ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on
   Housing, Construction and Community Development
 
 AN  ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York and the
   emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in  relation
   to housing unit fees
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1.  Subdivision a of section 26-517.1  of  the  administrative
 code  of  the  city  of  New York, as amended by section 15 of part K of
 chapter 36 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
   a. The department of finance shall collect  from  the  owner  of  each
 housing  accommodation  registered  pursuant  to  section 26-517 of this
 chapter an annual fee in the amount of [twenty] THIRTY dollars per  year
 for  each unit subject to this law, in order to defray costs incurred by
 the city pursuant to subdivision c of section  eight  of  the  emergency
 tenant protection act of nineteen hundred seventy-four.
   §  2. Subdivisions c and e of section 8 of section 4 of chapter 576 of
 the laws of 1974 constituting the emergency  tenant  protection  act  of
 nineteen  seventy-four, subdivision c as amended by section 1 and subdi-
 vision e as amended by section 2 of part I of chapter 56 of the laws  of
 2020, are amended to read as follows:
   c.  Whenever  a  city  having  a population of one million or more has
 determined the existence of an emergency pursuant to  section  three  of
 this act, the provisions of this act and the New York city rent stabili-
 zation  law  of nineteen hundred sixty-nine shall be administered by the
 state division of housing and community renewal as provided in  the  New
 York  city  rent  stabilization  law  of nineteen hundred sixty-nine, as
 amended, or as otherwise provided by law.  The  costs  incurred  by  the
 state  division  of  housing and community renewal in administering such
 regulation shall be paid by such city. All payments  for  such  adminis-
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD03511-01-1

 S. 4456                             2
 
 tration shall be transmitted to the state division of housing and commu-
 nity renewal as follows: on or after April first of each year commencing
 with  April,  nineteen  hundred eighty-four, the commissioner of housing
 and  community renewal, in consultation with the director of the budget,
 shall determine an amount necessary to defray the division's anticipated
 annual cost, and one-quarter of such amount shall be paid by  such  city
 on  or  before July first of such year, one-quarter of such amount on or
 before October first of such year, one-quarter  of  such  amount  on  or
 before  January  first  of  the  following  year and one-quarter of such
 amount on or before March thirty-first of the following year.  After the
 close of the fiscal year of the state, the commissioner, in consultation
 with the director of the budget, shall determine the amount of all actu-
 al costs incurred in such fiscal year and shall certify such  amount  to
 such city. If such certified amount shall differ from the amount paid by
 the  city for such fiscal year, appropriate adjustments shall be made in
 the next quarterly payment to be made by such city. In  the  event  that
 the amount thereof is not paid to the commissioner, in consultation with
 the  director  of the budget, as herein prescribed, the commissioner, in
 consultation with the director of the budget, shall certify  the  unpaid
 amount  to the comptroller, and the comptroller shall, to the extent not
 otherwise prohibited by law, withhold such amount  from  any  state  aid
 payable to such city. In no event shall the amount imposed on the owners
 exceed [twenty] THIRTY dollars per unit per year.
   e. The failure to pay the prescribed assessment not to exceed [twenty]
 THIRTY  dollars  per  unit for any housing accommodation subject to this
 act or the New York city rent  stabilization  law  of  nineteen  hundred
 sixty-nine  shall  constitute  a charge due and owing such city, town or
 village which has imposed an annual charge for each such housing  accom-
 modation  pursuant to subdivision b of this section. Any such city, town
 or village shall be authorized to provide for  the  enforcement  of  the
 collection of such charges by commencing an action or proceeding for the
 recovery  of  such fees or by the filing of a lien upon the building and
 lot. Such methods for the enforcement of the collection of such  charges
 shall be the sole remedy for the enforcement of this section.
   §  3.  The increased revenues payable each year to the commissioner of
 the state division of housing and community renewal pursuant to this act
 shall be divided equally by the commissioner between the office of  rent
 administration  and  the office of the tenant protection unit within the
 division of housing and community renewal and shall be utilized  by  the
 commissioner  in  addition  to and not in substitution for the levels of
 funding from all sources provided to the office of  rent  administration
 and  the  office  of the tenant protection unit on the effective date of
 this act.
   § 4. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the  amend-
 ments to section 26-517.1 of chapter 4 of title 26 of the administrative
 code  of  the  city  of  New  York made by section one of this act shall
 expire on the same date as such law expires and  shall  not  affect  the
 expiration of such law as provided under section 26-520 of such law.

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Senate Bill S4456

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Sponsored By

Liz Krueger