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@14 "nieces and nephews start sending one credit card bill a month to a rent stablized apartment in order to establish residency" Shouldn't the address on your W-2 form be your address of record? Since there is a maximum salary cap once stablized rent reaches $2000, isn't that the way to determine who is living in the stablized apartment?

Has anyone successfully negotiated with a rent stabilized apartment for less than the maximum increased allowed? If so, I want to know your technique. My $1800 rent is way over 50% of my net income & thought maybe I'd have a chance this time not to incur the maximum percentage increase.

Dont like the rent rates in NYC? Very simple solution, move to where you can pay your own way. Yes its that simple....

^^

as noted above the stereotype of the millionaire with the 3 bedroom for $800 is in no way representative of the average rent stabilized tenant. not even close. it is simply a tactic used by the landlords to try and force up rents.

the average tenant in one of these apartments (typically 1-2 bedroom) is 30-60k a year earner. that is real life. there are no millionaires in my building i can tell you that.

unfortunately even if every rent stabilized apartment was made "market" it would hardly have any effect on the overall average rent in real day to day deals. it would just mean a certain class of people who currently live in NYC would be forced to move to another city....all in the name of....wait for it...."fairness"

ha!

Good point #30 Jeff (on working class and middle class renters). Personally, I don’t know anyone making over 100k living in a stabilized or controlled apartment. In fact, everyone I know living in a stabilized building pays the equivalent of or just below market rate (because of vacancy leases, “renovations”, and LL’s taking the max increase every renewal. (in addition to suspect jumps in rent on the rental history)) And all of them live in the outer boroughs.
Tales of six figure and seven figure earners living in posh Manhattan digs for less than $1000 always seemed like fantasy to me. I’m sure one or two exist, but are outnumbered 1000 to 1 by middle income earners (recent grads, young professionals, non-profit, and public sector workers) paying 1/3 to ½ of their take home on rent to live in modest apartments in modest buildings, in modest neighborhoods where increase outpace inflation.

let's also not forget that landlords have assets against which they may borrow or offset their taxes--on the backs of tenants who are, effectively, supporting their "investments". everyone needs a place to live--why not a formula that provides tenants some tax "recognition" for helping keep landlords afloat--many of us do our own repairs and maintenance when the landlords refuse to do a proper job.

why aren't the rights of market rate tenants ever considered or fought for? most of us are forced into market rate apartments at some point, whether we can really afford them or not (using the rule of thumb that too many of us pay 50% or more of our net income on rent in nyc). pataki did his best to gut the DHCR and other orgs, loading them up with real estate/development goons, so really, between that and the RGB, there's no real oversite.

not a very hardhitting interview. landlords
get their increases above inflation, year after
year, real wages for many tenants are flat.
the canard of millionaires living in $1100
highceiling upper west side luxury apartments?
what percentage is that? most stabilized apartments are modest, affordable housing for
middle and working class people with no place
else to turn.
that an issue that effects millions of people,
especially in these times, gets so little
media coverage is appalling. why wasn't
Freund asked about the RSB's contributions
to Republican
State Senators? to Pedro Espada?
I hate to say it, but if the RGB was subject
to the same media scrutiny as some of the
more "sexy" issues of the day, maybe we'd
have a shot at some fairness.
And to #20...landlords are indeed subsidized
by the taxpayer in all sorts of ways. and
so are the banks from whom they borrow.

How nice. MichaelB wants us to be nice and reasonable as the majority of tenants have to come up with more money for land"lords" with plenty-enough of it, even as more of us are loosing or lost our jobs, or start packing for unknown destinations probably far, far away.

Gee, can't we all just get along.

Dude, get real.

what about poor people whose income is a lot less or theyre fixed income or unemployed why should we be concerned about landlords alleged lack of profit most of us in rent stabilized apts do not get basic maintenance adequate heat and response from landlords re repairs there seems to be nowhere to turn for help

at those who would say i don't deserve to be helped because the economy is bad....well then neither does the multi million dollar management that owns my building. as the tenants move out of my building the rents double and only much more wealthy people move in. lovely. all part of the system.

the rental market in NYC is a millionaire's DREAM. rents have been so high for so long that they think they earned that money. what a bunch of crap.

even the term "market rate" is so funny in this town. the market is so distorted and out of wack here.

So it seeems that there is corruption on both sides of this issue. People who can afford much higher rents and abuse the protections the affored by the government and landlords who take advantage of slack oversight by the same government.

But the fact that many people abuse the system does not mean that there are plenty of people on both sides with legitimate arguments. Most of the comments on this comments page are simply dismissive and insulting to the guest.

This is small-minded and head-in-the sand thinking. Landlords have legitimate grievances as do tenants. There is enough anectdotal experiences out there to support either side, but those stories don't cover all situations or prove any absolutes. Lime most other political issues, we have trouble even hearnig the other side's argument without insult.

Was that supposed to be fair and balanced reportage?

Nothing "pins" the Sleeze-O-Meter like a real estate lawyer.

Wouldn't it be nice if housing was as important as stock shares?
If tenants have to present financial info then it would be only fair if the landlords also had to report profits just like any public corp. selling stocks.

Why is it *NEVER* an appropriate time to talk about holding off rent increases. In the boom it was unfair because owners could have gotten so much more and tenants should just feel grateful they only have to pay 4%! Now it's not a good time because their apartments are losing value?

To Lori and don't forget the landlords that make life miserable so that tenants move out of their rent stabalized locations. Then use loopholes have a friend move in paying a higher rent, then once they move out (generally pretty quickly) they no longer are a stablized apartment. Lets not pretend that there are serious loopholes.

My wife and I just moved into a decontrolled unit in a largely rent-stabilized building, and we have learned we are paying over FIVE times what the previous tenant paid. There is NO WAY the actual cost of our renovations were substantial enough to take the unit out of rent stabilization.

Under the current system there is no check on the actual cost of the renovation to decontrol a unit; they just make a request, and since the landlord usually pays cash wherever possible it is easy to overstate upgrade costs.

It is then up to the new tenant to file an expensive complaint that may result in attempts at eviction before their lease is up, and at the very least they will be blacklisted by landlords for their lifetime in NYC.

What a ridiculous, corrupt system.

I live in a brownstone on the UWS that used to be 10 stabilized units renting about $800 a month. Now there's only two of us left, the other 8 units rent for an average of $2500-$4,000 a month and he has built two penthouses on the roof so he has 12 units now. 10 years ago the gross for my landlord was $8,000. Now it's almost $35,000. I think his costs are likely covered. He owns 11 buildings on my block alone - same story. And by the way the "Rent Stabilization Association" is a landlord rights organization, not tenants' rights.

Tenants are urging Gov. Paterson to put tenant issues on the agenda of an special session he calls. Tenants groups have been e-mailing the Governor:

Dear Governor Paterson,

The downstate region cannot wait until 2010 or later while we lose tens of thousands of additional affordable homes for lack of
legislative action. New York City and suburban counties have already lost 200,000 to 300,000 affordable apartments and we cannot afford to
lose more.

We therefore urge that in any extraordinary session that you call, you include the following essential bills on the agenda:

►S2237-A (Stewart-Cousins, et al.)/A2005 (Rosenthal et al.) This bill repeals vacancy decontrol and re-regulates most apartments that have been deregulated due to high rent vacancy decontrol during the last 15
years. (Passed Assembly)

►S3326 (Stewart-Cousins, et al.)/A4359-A (Pretlow et al.) This bill puts into rent stabilization all buildings that will leave or that have already left the Mitchell-Lama or project-based Section 8 program, regardless of when constructed, and closes the “unique or
peculiar circumstances” loophole.

►S745-A (Krueger et al/A1928 (O’Donnell et al.) This bill makes rent increases for Major Capital Improvement rent increases temporary
surcharges. (Passed Assembly)

Failure to enact these bills this year would make the already severe housing crisis in downstate New York far worse. There are many other important bills, but these three will stop the bleeding.

We urge you to take this necessary step to reverse the phaseout of our rent and eviction protection laws, preserve the remaining affordable

eligit [7] Your business is doing badly, so you expect your landlord to subsidize you?? I am sorry if your income is suffering, but why should that become someone else's problem? Do you subsidize anyone else? And when your business was doing better, did you offer to pay more rent? Your sense of entitlement is amazing. And do people living in non-stablized apartments get subsidized?

I live in a rent stabilized building and can fully understand the position of the renters and landlords. On the landlord’s side, there are apartments in my 150 unit building that are under $900 for three bedroom apartments in Sunset Park Brooklyn and one bedrooms that are probably under $600 a month. The tenants in these apartments are usually elderly, but some are also occupied by families that have inherited their units. However, there are also many “new” tenants, yours truly included, that effectively pay market rate for their units (due to turn over, renewal increases, and vacancy lease increases). The increases from yesterday will take market rate apartments and put them above market rate, some tenants are paying over $1500 for 400sf one bedrooms, $1900 for two bedrooms under 500sf, and $2200 for a three bedrooms. These are the tenants supporting the building and the ones most likely and able to leave for a more affordable market rate apt. in a better neighborhood.

the burden of proof that a landlord has done the work necessary to upgrade an apartment sufficient to take it off the stabilization rolls is laughable--and part of how they effectively push people out time and again. if they cannot make themselves profitable, do as other failed business owners do--sell!

The purpose of rent stabilization is not subsidizing lower-income tenants, but to equalize bargaining power between landlords or tenants.

Without that bargaining power, the housing emergency (a vacancy rate of under 5% - and much higher for affordable apartments) will be worse.

As furious as I am, I think every tenant should be provided with a copy of the landlord's books. Without seeing the bottom line, no tenant will ever agree with RGB hikes on rent; with open books, maybe the hostility will ratchet down.

And, for the record, even though I'm rent-stabilized, the landlord is renting out the apartments across the hall at market rates AND below what I'm paying. AND there're still overdue repairs...

...very furious.

But that's not the scenario to use to broadly wash across the field. Go after the high salaried people not everyone!

I have managed apartments on behalf of NYC landlords and given the cost of labor in NYC (particularly institutional owners who have union only policies), rubbish removal, fuel costs, property taxes, etc., it is extraordinarily hard to keep pace and appropriately maintain their buildings. There are MANY people who make upper middle class incomes living in rent control and rent stabilized apartments -- it's a ridiculous system. People have become very adept at scamming the system, nieces and nephews start sending one credit card bill a month to a rent stablized apartment in order to establish residency, there is a lot of illegal subletting where the leaseholders benefit from the policy, etc.

I believe in a supportive housing system but it should be means tested.

hello???

eligit, if your food costs rise but your salary doesn't, do you demand that your grocer sell you food below market cost?

Brian, the value of a rental property is directly proportional to the income it produces. Landlords are stuck with properties that lose money because no one will buy them.

I am not a landlord, but I can tell you that landlords are not evil monsters. Landlording is a business, like any other, like cardiac surgeons (who could be said to exploiting the misfortune of others and whose costs are not controlled).

(1) As the guest stated, the RGB does NOT consider landlord profits. Landlords are not required to open their books to the RGB, so assertions of "could not make a profit" have no actual basis. The RSA's ads focused on some 10% of owners of stabilized apartments.

Proposed state legislation (now unlikely) would have opened those books.

(2) There is a housing emergency for affordable apartments, and VACANCY decontrol has nothing to do with the income of existing tenants.

Oh man this guy's a looser. He's making every excuse and using arguments that don't have weight to defend the landlords. He must be a landlord.

Robert [2] what do you mean "we the people are getting screwed"? What about all the people who are not in an apt that has ANY gov't protection?? If you are in some kind of rent protected residence, lucky you, but the rest of the world has ALSO been facing higher costs: taxes, water & sewer, and utilities. Haven't you heard how much heating oil has gone up in the past few years??

Brian, as for why owners of rent-stablized buildings didn't sell, perhaps there is not such a good market for selling a building full of apts that either don't make money for the owner or may even lose money. Would you make such an investment? I doubt it.

Rent stabilization is a joke...I have a 500 sqft rent stabilized apt that is $1800/month, in Brooklyn, that I split w/ a roommate. I don't know why the guest is talking about maintenance...the tiles are falling off of my shower, I have a cracked window, and I have no super...just some guy that lives an hour away and who doesn't answer his phone.

^^

i forgot to add....when he says "operating costs are going up"...what about MY operating costs??? My business is getting HAMMERED by this terrible new economy....so how is it fair for my rent to go up in that context?

Let him have it, Brian, good for you.

The "renovations" are usually BS with forged invoices from crappy "contractors"....

these landlords crack me up.

millionaires begging for money from lower middle class people....and getting it.

He's obviously on the side of the landlords and who knows why. He's probably in their pockets like just about everybody in such power positions are. We really need a revolution from the bottom. Iran sets a good model for US.

Good question Brian, why ARE stabilized rents going up while market rents are going down and why did the NYS Public Service commission approve increases for Con Ed, Verizon and Time Warner? WE THE PEOPLE are getting screwed... so what's new.
So we have expenses too Mr. We too have extra expenses too. Why did water and property taxes go up? Why doesn't the government help us by not raising such taxes.

please. market rents haven't gone down that much. it's just that non-stabilized landlords felt so free to jack up prices over the boom years, and are now forced to fill vacancies by shaving off a small percentage of those ridiculously inflated prices.