New rent regs to aid tenants in stairs flap

The newly passed New York State rent regulations could give instant help to Manhattan tenants whose landlord told them to use the fire escape while he was replacing the building stairs and now wants them to pay for the repairs.

One of the provisions in the sweeping reform package would lower the cap on monthly rent increases for major capital improvements like the botched staircase project in the W. 83rd Street building from 6% to just 2% a year.

So a tenant paying $1,000 a month now would be hit with hikes that would reach $221 a month after 10 years to cover the renovation costs, compared to $898 under old rules.

Democrats in Albany passed the new rules covering hundreds of thousands of apartments Friday. Gov. Cuomo says he will sign them soon, breaking a decadeslong logjam in the legislature.

Tenant advocates cheer the rules as a long-overdue step to rein in skyrocketing rents for middle- and working-class tenants. Landlords say they will stifle investment and incentives to improve buildings.

The landlord for the 10unit building on W. 83rd St. shocked the tenants in 2017 by abruptly telling them he was replacing the only staircase — and instructing them to use the fire escape instead.

City officials nixed that , but the landlord wound up spending nearly a year tearing up the building. In April, Pine Management gave renters another shock by applying for huge rent hikes to offset not only construction costs but expenses for safety violations it committed.

The state is mulling the so-called MCI hike.

Five of the 10 apartments in the upper West Side building are rent-stabilized, and all of those are occupied by seniors. Some may be able to avoid rent hikes altogether if they make less than $50,000 a year.