Amd §§26-405 & 26-511, NYC Ad Cd; amd §6, Emerg Ten Prot Act of 1974
 
Provides that no landlord shall deny access to a licensed professional engineer or licensed registered architect hired by any tenant or tenant association representing tenants of a multiple dwelling of six units or more for the purpose of conducting an inspection of a major capital improvement for which an application for a maximum rent adjustment has been filed by the landlord; provides that such inspection shall be conducted after notice to the landlord and during normal business hours; provides for the filing of such inspection report by such tenants with the New York city rent agency for consideration in such application's determination.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3241
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 29, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CYMBROWITZ -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Housing
AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York and the
emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation
to inspection of major capital improvements for which rent increases
are requested and in relation to extending the provisions of the rent
stabilization law
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subparagraph (g) of paragraph 1 of subdivision g of section
2 26-405 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by
3 section 31 of part A of chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to
4 read as follows:
5 (g) There has been since July first, nineteen hundred seventy, a major
6 capital improvement required for the operation, preservation or mainte-
7 nance of the structure. An adjustment under this subparagraph [(g)] for
8 any order of the commissioner issued after the effective date of the
9 rent act of 2015 shall be in an amount sufficient to amortize the cost
10 of the improvements pursuant to this subparagraph [(g)] over an eight-
11 year period for buildings with thirty-five or fewer units or a nine year
12 period for buildings with more than [thiry-five] thirty-five units[,
13 or]. No landlord shall deny access to a professional engineer licensed
14 to practice in the state of New York or a registered architect licensed
15 to practice in the state of New York hired by any tenant, tenants or
16 tenant association representing tenants of a multiple dwelling of six
17 units or more for the purpose of conducting an inspection of a major
18 capital improvement for which an application for adjustment of maximum
19 rent has been filed. Such inspection shall be conducted after notice to
20 the landlord and during normal business hours. Such tenant may file the
21 report of the inspection with the city rent agency for consideration in
22 the determination of such application; or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07406-01-9
A. 3241 2
1 § 2. Paragraph 6 of subdivision c of section 26-511 of the administra-
2 tive code of the city of New York, as amended by section 29 of part A of
3 chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
4 (6) provides criteria whereby the commissioner may act upon applica-
5 tions by owners for increases in excess of the level of fair rent
6 increase established under this law provided, however, that such crite-
7 ria shall provide (a) as to hardship applications, for a finding that
8 the level of fair rent increase is not sufficient to enable the owner to
9 maintain approximately the same average annual net income (which shall
10 be computed without regard to debt service, financing costs or manage-
11 ment fees) for the three year period ending on or within six months of
12 the date of an application pursuant to such criteria as compared with
13 annual net income, which prevailed on the average over the period nine-
14 teen hundred sixty-eight through nineteen hundred seventy, or for the
15 first three years of operation if the building was completed since nine-
16 teen hundred sixty-eight or for the first three fiscal years after a
17 transfer of title to a new owner provided the new owner can establish to
18 the satisfaction of the commissioner that he or she acquired title to
19 the building as a result of a bona fide sale of the entire building and
20 that the new owner is unable to obtain requisite records for the fiscal
21 years nineteen hundred sixty-eight through nineteen hundred seventy
22 despite diligent efforts to obtain same from predecessors in title and
23 further provided that the new owner can provide financial data covering
24 a minimum of six years under his or her continuous and uninterrupted
25 operation of the building to meet the three year to three year compar-
26 ative test periods herein provided; and (b) as to completed building-
27 wide major capital improvements, for a finding that such improvements
28 are deemed depreciable under the Internal Revenue Code and that the cost
29 is to be amortized over an eight-year period for a building with thir-
30 ty-five or fewer housing accommodations, or a nine-year period for a
31 building with more than thirty-five housing accommodations, for any
32 determination issued by the division of housing and community renewal
33 after the effective date of the rent act of 2015, based upon cash
34 purchase price exclusive of interest or service charges. No landlord
35 shall deny access to a professional engineer licensed to practice in the
36 state of New York or a registered architect licensed to practice in the
37 state of New York hired by any tenant, tenants or tenant association
38 representing tenants of a multiple dwelling of six units or more for the
39 purpose of conducting an inspection of a major capital improvement for
40 which an application for adjustment of maximum rent has been filed. Such
41 inspection shall be conducted after notice to the landlord and during
42 normal business hours. Such tenant may file the report of the inspection
43 with the city rent agency for consideration in the determination of such
44 application. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein,
45 no hardship increase granted pursuant to this paragraph shall, when
46 added to the annual gross rents, as determined by the commissioner,
47 exceed the sum of, (i) the annual operating expenses, (ii) an allowance
48 for management services as determined by the commissioner, (iii) actual
49 annual mortgage debt service (interest and amortization) on its indebt-
50 edness to a lending institution, an insurance company, a retirement fund
51 or welfare fund which is operated under the supervision of the banking
52 or insurance laws of the state of New York or the United States, and
53 (iv) eight and one-half percent of that portion of the fair market value
54 of the property which exceeds the unpaid principal amount of the mort-
55 gage indebtedness referred to in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph.
56 Fair market value for the purposes of this paragraph shall be six times
A. 3241 3
1 the annual gross rent. The collection of any increase in the stabilized
2 rent for any apartment pursuant to this paragraph shall not exceed six
3 percent in any year from the effective date of the order granting the
4 increase over the rent set forth in the schedule of gross rents, with
5 collectability of any dollar excess above said sum to be spread forward
6 in similar increments and added to the stabilized rent as established or
7 set in future years;
8 § 3. Paragraph 3 of subdivision d of section 6 of section 4 of chapter
9 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency tenant protection
10 act of nineteen seventy-four, as amended by section 30 of part A of
11 chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
12 (3) there has been since January first, nineteen hundred seventy-four
13 a major capital improvement required for the operation, preservation or
14 maintenance of the structure. An adjustment under this paragraph shall
15 be in an amount sufficient to amortize the cost of the improvements
16 pursuant to this paragraph over an eight-year period for a building with
17 thirty-five or fewer housing accommodations, or a nine-year period for a
18 building with more than thirty-five housing accommodations, for any
19 determination issued by the division of housing and community renewal
20 after the effective date of the rent act of 2015[, or]. No landlord
21 shall deny access to a professional engineer licensed to practice in the
22 state of New York or a registered architect licensed to practice in the
23 state of New York hired by any tenant, tenants or tenant association
24 representing tenants of a multiple dwelling of six units or more for the
25 purpose of conducting an inspection of a major capital improvement for
26 which an application for adjustment of maximum rent has been filed. Such
27 inspection shall be conducted after notice to the landlord and during
28 normal business hours. Such tenant may file the report of the inspection
29 with the city rent agency for consideration in the determination of such
30 application, or
31 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
32 it shall have become a law, except that any rules and regulations neces-
33 sary for the timely implementation of this act on its effective date
34 shall be promulgated on or before such date; provided that the amendment
35 to section 26-405 of the city rent and rehabilitation law made by
36 section one of this act shall remain in full force and effect only so
37 long as the public emergency requiring the regulation and control of
38 residential rents and evictions continues, as provided in subdivision 3
39 of section 1 of the local emergency housing rent control act and
40 provided further that the amendment to section 26-511 of the rent
41 stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine made by section two of
42 this act shall expire on the same date as such law expires and shall not
43 affect the expiration of such law as provided under section 26-520 of
44 such law and provided further that the amendment to section 6 of the
45 emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four made by section
46 three of this act shall expire on the same date as such act expires and
47 shall not affect the expiration of such act as provided in section 17 of
48 chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, as amended.