On November 15, 2022, DHCR held a public hearing concerning the agency’s proposed amendments to the Rent Stabilization Code (“RSC”), as required by the State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA).
Our review of the proposed RSC amendments showed that DHCR had exceeded its authority and in some matters was proposing unlawful changes to the RSC. In response to the DHCR proposed amendments, and as part of our continued endeavor to fiercely advocate for our clients’ property rights, our firm submitted comments to DHCR regarding the proposed RSC amendments. Please click here for a copy of our comments, which DHCR treats as written testimony at the public hearing.
We focused our comments on several proposed amendments that we believe present the greatest risk to you—our clients—and to the multifamily industry at large:
- Extending the “look back” period concerning legal rents and overcharges;
- Unilaterally limiting first rents for newly created and combined apartments;
- Changing the rules to prove a building-wide substantial rehabilitation in order to permanently exempt all apartments in a building from rent stabilization;
- For demolition applications, adding requirements to prove financial ability and expanding the scope of demolition necessary to qualify for an order terminating tenancies in order to demolish the building; and
- DHCR’s flawed policy concerning pre-HSTPA luxury deregulation.
The next step in the amendment process is for DHCR to consider testimony given at the public hearing and written comments like ours. DHCR must then publish an assessment of those comments and how it did—or did not—modify the proposed RSC amendments. The RSC amendments cannot be filed with the Department of State before December 7, 2022, but political consultants expect that the amendments will be finalized sometime in early 2023.
If you have any questions concerning the proposed RSC amendments or our comments, please contact us.