New York's highest court recently agreed to determine whether a rent-stabilized lease could be sold off in a bankruptcy or is a protected "local public assistance benefit," as outlined under New York law. Other such protected benefits include welfare and unemployment payments.
Mayor de Blasio recently announced the appointment of Rachel Godsil as Chair of the Rent Guidelines Board. This news comes after the mayor made five appointments to the board last month: Sarah Williams Willard as an owners' representative, Cecilia Joza and Steven Flax as public...
Apartment rents in the city are about 75 percent higher than they were in 2000, according to a recently released report on housing affordability from city Comptroller Scott Stringer. The median apartment rent in the city surged 75 percent to $1,100 between 2000 and 2012. That's 31...
A group of Brooklyn tenants has filed a federal lawsuit against two landlords, accusing them of illegally trying to force black residents out of their rent-stabilized apartments to make room for new renters who pay market rates. According to court documents, most of the tenants have...
In legal terms, a certified question is a formal request by one court to one of its sister courts, usually but not always in another jurisdiction, for an opinion on a question of law. This happened in the appeal of a 78-year-old rent-stabilized tenant's bankruptcy case.
On March 27, Mayor de Blasio appointed four new members to the Rent Guidelines Board. During his campaign against Republican Joe Lhota in October, de Blasio said that he would push the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents when it votes in June. The mayor doesn’t have direct...
Cash-flowing rental properties allow owners to build wealth over the long term in the form of an appreciating asset while also generating monthly income. RealtyTrac recently performed a nationwide analysis of rental returns for each county. It calculated the gross rental yield by...
In a recently filed lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, two building owners and three landlord groups have asked the court to declare many of the newly amended rent stabilization regulations and the actions of the state's Tenant Protection Unit "invalid and unenforceable."...
A key city panel unanimously approved plans for the $1.5 billion redevelopment of the old Domino Sugar refinery on the Brooklyn waterfront. The City Planning Commission signed off on the proposal after the de Blasio administration pressured the developers, Two Trees Management, to include more...
Public Advocate Letitia James recently filed a complaint against the owners of an Upper West Side apartment complex that has barred its rent-stabilized tenants from the building’s gym. The Commission on Human Rights complaint against the owners cite a 2008 law prohibiting discrimination...
At a news conference on Feb. 4, Mayor de Blasio reiterated his intention to follow through on a promise he made during his campaign last year to not recommend any increase to New York City's property -tax rate when he releases his fiscal 2015 budget proposal.
Landlord CWCapital Asset Management, the loan servicing firm that represents the bondholders of Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village since the previous owner Tishman Speyer defaulted on its debt, recently agreed to grant tenants a one-month rent reduction because of damages suffered during...
