Don’t redo rent laws, sez group

ALBANY — If a series of Democrat-supported pro-tenant legislation is passed , building residents would suffer along with the landlords it seeks to regulate, real estate lobbyists say.

The Real Estate Board of New York, a powerful trade organization and political donor known as REBNY, is painting an apocalyptic picture of the city should major rent regulation reforms be passed by the state Legislature.

They claim the bills will prevent property owners from properly maintaining buildings and put over 414,000 units at risk for heating outages, vermin infestations, mold and other housing quality issues within five years.

“The proposals they’ve put forward so far would not address the affordable housing crisis and in fact would put hundreds of thousands of rent regulated units under severe financial distress within a short period of time,” John Banks, the group’s president, said in a statement.

Assembly Democrats, led by Speaker Carl Heastie (DBronx), announced support this week for a sweeping set of nine bills that would boost protections for tenants whose apartments are already regulated and close several loopholes that housing advocates argue grant landlords too much power over tenants.

Some of the bills would repeal the 1997 decontrol of high-rent vacant apartments, which has led to thousands of apartments being deregulated, place bans on rent increases for major capital improvements and individual apartment improvements and make “preferential rent” discounts last for the duration of a tenancy. Current rent regulations expire in June.

Heastie noted Wednesday that Democrats controlling both chambers in Albany for the first time in a decade is a good sign for renters.

“For too long tenants have been disadvantaged in these discussions and now we are going to work as hard as we can to protect them,” he said.