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The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA) is a New York state
statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...
that introduced major changes to landlord-tenant law.


History

After the
2018 elections The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. Africa * 2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018 *2018 Sierra Leonean general elec ...
– in which Democrats took control of the
New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan comp ...
for the first time in a decade and just the third time in 50 years – momentum began on behalf of changes to landlord-tenant law. Eventually, a package of nine bills emerged which incorporated a large number of proposed changes. On June 11, 2019, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced that they had reached a "landmark agreement" on new rent laws. Both houses of the
New York state legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an officia ...
passed the HSTPA on June 14, 2019, and
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...
signed the HSTPA into law later that day.


Major provisions

According to Sharon Otterman and Matthew Haag of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the HSTPA "mark a turning point" for the millions of New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments "after a steady erosion of protections and the loss of tens of thousands of regulated apartments." Among the HSTPA's reforms are limits on security deposits to just one month's worth of rent, new protections against evictions, prohibitions on the use of tenant blacklists, the elimination of vacancy decontrol and high-income deregulation, and the closing of the owner use loophole. The law institutes new limits on the amount spent on major capital improvements (MCIs) and individual apartment improvements (IAIs) that can be recovered through increased rent, which tenant groups contended were subject to "routin abuse" by landlords seeking to "jack up rents and push out tenants." The "look back" window for rent overcharge claims was extended from four to six years. The HSTPA also instituted a number of new protections for residents of
mobile home A mobile home (also known as a house trailer, park home, trailer, or trailer home) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). U ...
s. Furthermore, the law permits other New York municipalities to institute their own rent regulations. In addition, the HSTPA – unlike its predecessors, which had to be renewed – is permanent. The one major proposal which did not pass was a "good cause" eviction bill, which would have made it far more difficult for landlords to evict tenants from their apartments in the absence of misdeeds by the tenants. The HSTPA rent regulation laws did not expel all exit paths for buildings to remove themselves from regulation though. Building owners can still use demolition, substantial rehabilitation, conversion to and from commercial use, and economic infeasibility to continue deregulating their apartments. If a landlord can not prove substantial rehabilitation, though, their rent histories may be seen as unreliable keeping them from moving away from regulation.


Reaction

Reaction to the HSTPA was divided. Tenant groups cheered the bill's passage. Meanwhile, landlord groups worried that some of its provisions would undermine their ability to build and maintain apartment buildings.


Legal challenge

On July 15, 2019, an assortment of landlords and landlord groups initiated a legal challenge to the law in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, ...
. In an 125-page
complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...
, the plaintiffs claimed that the Rent Stabilization Law – as modified by the HSTPA – violated their rights under Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This expedited path to federal court became possible following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in '' Knick v. Township of Scott''.


See also

* Article 7A (New York City housing code)


References

{{Reflist


External links


Text of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act
on the website of the New York State Senate New York (state) law New York (state) statutes State law in the United States 2019 in American law Housing in New York (state)