BILL NUMBER: S1461
SPONSOR: KAVANAGH
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, the
emergency housing rent control law and the emergency tenant protection
act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation to extending the time a tenant
shall have to answer when an application for a major capital improvement
rent increase has been filed
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill extends the amount of time from 60 days to 90 days that
tenants have to respond in proceedings regarding major capital improve-
ment rent increases before the division of housing and community renewal
and provides that applications for a major capital improvement rent
increase must include all copies of valid permits pertaining to the
major capital improvement work with such applications.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Sections one through four and section six of the bill amend parallel
provisions of the state's various laws regulating rent to extend the
answer time in proceedings before the division of housing and community
renewal from 60 days to 90 days.
Section one amends paragraph 10 of subdivision a of section 26-511.1 of
the administrative code of the city of New York for that purpose.
Section two amends paragraph 10 of subdivision a of section 26-405.1 of
the administrative code of the city of New York for that purpose.
Section three amends paragraph 10 of subdivision (a) of section 10-b of
section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency
tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, for that purpose.
Section four amends paragraph (j) of subdivision 1 of section 8-a of
chapter 274 of the laws of 1946, constituting the emergency housing rent
control law, for that purpose.
Section six amends paragraph 3-a of subdivision d of section 6 of
section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency
tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, for that purpose.
Section five and section seven of the bill amend parallel provisions of
the state's various laws regulating rent to extend the answer time in
proceedings before the division of housing and community renewal from 60
days to 90 days and provide that applications for a major capital
improvement rent increase must include all copies of valid permits
pertaining to the major capital improvement work with such application.
Section five amends paragraph 6 of subdivision c of section 26-511 of
the administrative code of the city of New York for that purpose.
Section seven amends subparagraph 7 of the second undesignated paragraph
of paragraph (a) of subdivision 4 of section 4 of chapter 274.of the
laws of 1946, constituting the emergency housing rent control law, for
that purpose.
Section eight and section nine of the bill amend parallel provisions of
the state's various laws regulating rent to provide that applications
for a major capital improvement rent increase must include all copies of
valid permits pertaining to the major capital improvement work with such
application.
Section eight amends subparagraph (g) of paragraph 1 of subdivision g of
section 26-405 of the administrative code of the city of New York for
that purpose.
Section nine amends paragraph 3 of subdivision d of section 6 of section
4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency tenant
protection act of nineteen seventy-four, for that purpose.
Section ten sets forth the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Current law only provides 60 days for tenants to file relevant comments
after a landlord has applied for a Major Capital Improvement (MCI) rent
increase. Tenants are only provided additional time if an extension is
specifically granted by DHCR's Office of Rent Administration.
In order for a tenant to make an appropriate and informed response to
the MCI application, the tenant would need to examine the landlord's
entire application file. To do this, the tenant must first complete a
FOIL request form. If there are building code violations, the tenant
must file the appropriate complaints, furnish proof of previous
complaints made to the landlord, and even hire engineers, architects,
attorneys and/or accountants to verify that a job was not completed or
that the improvement was not appropriately managed.
As it stands, there is already an extraordinary burden on the tenants to
answer the MCI application. This proposal would extend the existing
public comment period to 90 days to allow tenants a minimally sufficient
amount of time to submit an effective response to a landlord's MCI rent
increase request.
Additionally, by requiring landlords to furnish proof to DHCR that all
necessary permits associated with performing MCI work have been filed,
the provisions of this bill would prevent claims for MCI rent increases
that cannot be corroborated through permit records - a form of documen-
tation that serves as proof of work.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Provisions substantially similar to those of this bill were previously
included in Part B of S2980E of 2023.
2024: S7403 (Kavanagh) - COMMITTED TO RULES /A3818A (Rosenthal L) -
referred to codes
2023: S7403 (Kavanagh) - REFERRED TO HOUSING, CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT /A3818A (Rosenthal L) - referred to housing Senate:
2022: S7213A (Kavanagh) - REFERRED TO HOUSING, CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNI-
TY DEVELOPMENT
2021: S7213A (Kavanagh) - REFERRED TO HOUSING, CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNI-
TY DEVELOPMENT
Assembly:
2022: A1881 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2021: A1881 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2020: A0956 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2019: A0956 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2018: A4376 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2017: A4376 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2016: A0859 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2015: A0859 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2014: A0859 (Rosenthal L) - referred to Housing
2013: A0764 (Gibson) - referred to Housing; enacting clause stricken
2012: A2448 (Gibson) - referred to Housing
2011: A2448 (Gibson) - referred to Housing
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Minimal.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately; provided that
the amendments to sections 26-405 and 26-405.1 of the city rent and
rehabilitation law made by sections two and eight of this act shall
remain in full force and effect only as long as the public emergency
requiring the regulation and control of residential rents and evictions
continues, as provided in subdivision 3 of section 1 of the local emer-
gency housing rent control act; provided, further, that the amendments
to sections 26-511 and 26-511.1 of the administrative code of the city
of New York, made by sections one and five 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.