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2% and 4% Rent Guidelines Increases Proposed

NYC Rent Regulation: Rent Control/Rent Stabilized, DHCR Practice/Procedures

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2% and 4% Rent Guidelines Increases Proposed

Postby consigliere » Tue May 21, 2002 12:12 pm

Rent Board Recommends 2 and 4 Percent Increases
 
The Associated Press
 
The New York City Rent Guidelines Board has proposed rent increases of 2 percent for one-year leases and 4 percent for two-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments.
 
The nine-member board of mayoral appointees voted Monday on the proposed increases, which would affect leases up for renewal between Oct. 1, 2002 and Sept. 30, 2003.
 
The meeting, at the United States Custom House at Bowling Green, was attended by about 100 people, including tenants' advocates who voiced objections to the proposal.
 
The recommendations are subject to a public hearing followed by a final vote, but the board's initial proposal is traditionally adopted.
 
Unlike former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had sought to influence the board's annual decision, Michael Bloomberg said last month that he would wait to see what was proposed.
 
Last year, Giuliani replaced the board's chairman and appointed two other new members before the final vote.
 
Associated Press Story from Newsday
 
consigliere
 
Posts: 613
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2002 2:01 am

Re: 2% and 4% Rent Guidelines Increases Proposed

Postby consigliere » Tue May 21, 2002 12:33 pm

City Board Recommends Rent Increases of 2% and 4%
 
By Thomas J. Lueck
The New York Times
 
The New York City Rent Guidelines Board, rejecting calls for the first rent rollback on rent-stabilized apartments, last night recommended increases of 2 percent on one-year leases and 4 percent on two-year leases.
 
The increases, which would apply to leases that are renewed between Oct. 1, 2002, and Sept. 30, 2003, would be equal to the lowest allowed in the last three decades for the city's 2.3 million tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. Such increases were approved five times in the 1990's.
 
But some on the nine-member board — all mayoral appointees chosen to represent tenants, property owners or the public at large — cited disparate economic factors, ranging from global warming to job losses since Sept. 11, that they said were easing the burden of landlords while placing tenants in a financial bind.
 
They also pointed to a study by the board's own analysts, released in April, that found a slight decline in landlords' operating costs for the first time since an index of such costs was created in 1969. The study attributed the 1.6 percent decline largely to reduced utility and fuel costs.
 
"This is a historic opportunity for New York City," said Adriene L. Holder, a lawyer and board member representing tenants who voted in favor of a failed proposal to decrease rent by 1.75 percent on one-year leases and 3.5 percent on two-year leases.
 
"If not now, when?" she asked. Ms. Holder, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, said the city's weak economy had put even small rent increases out of reach for a growing number of middle-income people.
 
The board's recommended rent increases will be the subject of a public hearing scheduled for June 26. A final vote is to be held on June 27. The recommendations have almost always been adopted by the board, despite a boisterous annual rite of protest by tenants' rights advocates and landlords.
 
The board's meeting last night, attended by about 100 people and interrupted by occasional boos and verbal sniping from tenants' advocates, was nonetheless more subdued than in other years.
 
Board members representing landlords have always maintained that some rent-stabilized tenants pay less in rent than is needed to maintain their apartments, and said last night that the equation had not changed.
 
"We should be concerned about the health of the housing industry," said Harold K. Lubell, a board member, who argued that increased costs for insurance and labor had offset landlords' savings for fuel and utility bills. His proposal was a 5 percent increase on one-year leases, and an 8 percent increase on two-year leases.
 
The meeting last night, held in an auditorium of the United States Custom House at Bowling Green, came after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in a marked departure from the heavy hand that had been placed on rent guidelines by the Giuliani administration, said in April that he had no intention of asserting control over decisions of the Rent Guidelines Board.
 
"I'll wait and see what they say," Mr. Bloomberg said, when he was asked if there should be any increase in rents for stabilized tenants this year.
 
"The whole process of the Rent Guidelines Board was to take it out of politics," the mayor said. "And I think that is probably a good thing."
 
"You will never please the tenants and the landlords at the same time. You probably won't please either at the same time, but there's a reason why this was set and I think we should let it play out."
 
Mayor Giuliani had angered tenants and landlords almost every year when rent increases were being deliberated by the board. The former mayor frequently railed against the board for raising rents more than he wanted.
 
Tensions reached a peak last year, when Mr. Giuliani forced out his appointee as board chairman, Edward S. Hochman. Mr. Hochman responded by accusing Mr. Giuliani of being a "control freak" who treated the board's members as "messenger boys."
 
consigliere
 
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Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2002 2:01 am


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