Relates to enacting technical changes to the good cause eviction law

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic1

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Brian Kavanagh says this is needed

The Fiscal Year 2024-2025 enacted New York State budget passed Good Cause Eviction (GCE) into law. GCE extended tenant protections to certain eligible market-rate tenants. Covered tenants may not be evicted without good cause. GCE is mandated for New York City, while other localities in the state may opt in. This bill makes technical changes to the Good Cause Eviction Law for the purpose of clarifying certain provisions. Specifically, the bill makes amendments to provide clarification regarding certain provisions that tenants and property owners have found confusing or ambiguous, to remove unnecessary administrative burdens, and to reinforce the legislative intent of some parts of GCE where such intent can be better conveyed through clearer language. DHCR's Annual Guidance and Implementation Date Under GCE, a "reasonable rent increase" means an increase that is less than or equal to "a rent increase equal to the inflation index or ten percent, whichever is lower." The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) is tasked with publishing the inflation index for the most recent preceding calendar year. In 2024, DHCR published its inflation index notice in May. Since it was the first notice in the first year of GCE implementation, the inflation index determinations were readily adopted by property owners. However, the law does not currently specify an effective date for DHCR's annual notice. To avoid confusion going forward on which year's inflation index a landlord should use for calculating reasonable rent increases and for notifying tenants, it is necessary to specify when a new DHCR notice comes into effect. In addition, because property owners are required to provide notice to tenants of certain proposed changes in their leases well in advance, including certain rent increases, it is important that the new inflation index be published well before it takes effect. This bill provides for the new index to be published by June 1 and to take effect on October 1 each year. Exemption Clarification for Cooperatives and Condominiums GCE exempts units owned as cooperative and condominium housing from the law. Co -op and condo housing can be created by new construction or by converting from rental housing. For conversions, the submission of an offering plan to the Attorney General's Office usually indicates that a project is on the path to begin selling units and reconstituting as a homeownership entity. However, there are instances of stalled conversion where, despite a building having submitted an offering plan, no sale has occurred and the units within the building remain rental housing. It was never the intent of the GCE law to exclude rental housing under this circumstance from GCE. This bill seeks to clarify this by adding a definition of when a co-op or condo conversion is consummated and requires a submitted offering plan to be consummated in order for units in a converted building to be exempt from GCE. Exemption for Regulated Housing The GCE Law exempts housing units covered by rent stabilization, public housing, and certain other units that are otherwise under federal, state, or local regulations because good cause eviction protections already apply to these types of housing under other laws or regulations. This bill clarifies that the exemption the GCE Law applies specifically to housing units in which the tenants are protected from termination or non-renewal of lease without cause, not more broadly to those that only have affordability restrictions but no protection from termination or non-renewal of lease without cause. Certificate of Occupancy for New Building Exemption Practices on the issuance of certificates of occupancy vary across the state. In some areas, a certificate of occupancy is issued only once. In other areas, certificates of occupancy are regularly reissued. For example, in Albany, certificates of occupancy for buildings are issued every three years. Since the issuance of a temporary or permanent cert

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.