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Q: How do the new rent laws affect tenants and landlords?
Buying a home in Staten Island, or anywhere else in New York City, might be out of reach for some people, but being a tenant is looking brighter—in the city and throughout the state.
Our New York real estate attorney can help existing tenants and those interested in renting an apartment in New York City understand the sweeping new rent regulations that were recently passed. They can also counsel landlords regarding compliance.
To say the new laws are tenant-favorable is an understatement.
While most of new regulations were “aimed at strengthening protections” for tenants in NYC rent-regulated apartments, some protections apply statewide and to NYC unregulated apartments. These tenant benefits come at great cost to some landlords.
Seeking counsel from a skilled New York real estate attorney is advised to understand all of the changes and how they may impact both landlords and tenants in NYC and throughout the state. Some of the new laws impact security deposits, notices, eviction protections, and even tenants in mobile homes.
Some of the changes include:
- limiting security deposits to one month’s rent and making it easier for tenants to get their security deposit back
- landlords must give tenants notice of intent to raise rent by more than 5%
- landlords must give tenants in unregulated apartments notice of intention not to renew a lease (30 to 90 days depending on length of tenancy)
- extending judge’s ability to stay an eviction for up to one year
- making unlawful evictions “a misdemeanor punishable by a civil penalty of $1,000-$10,000 per violation”
- capping mobile home park tenants’ rent increases at 3% (or up to 6% if deemed “justifiable”) and other protections against evictions of trailer park tenants
- time extension for tenants from 10 to 30 days to fix lease violations
- limitation of tenant application fees to $20
- ban on landlords blacklisting or discriminating against tenants with housing court histories
Contact our New York real estate attorney
If you are a landlord or a tenant and have questions regarding how the new laws impact your rights, the real estate experts at Merlino & Gonzalez can help you. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
From our offices in Staten Island, New York and East Brunswick, New Jersey, we represent clients in both states in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate law.