S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
1498
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
January 10, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Housing
AN ACT to amend the local emergency housing rent control act, in
relation to rent regulation laws
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of the laws of
1962, constituting the local emergency housing rent control act, as
amended by chapter 82 of the laws of 2003 and the closing paragraph as
amended by chapter 422 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as
follows:
5. Authority for local rent control legislation. Each city having a
population of one million or more, acting through its local legislative
body, may adopt and amend local laws or ordinances in respect of the
establishment or designation of a city housing rent agency. When it
deems such action to be desirable or necessitated by local conditions in
order to carry out the purposes of this section, such city, except as
hereinafter provided, acting through its local legislative body and not
otherwise, may adopt and amend local laws or ordinances in respect of
the regulation and control of residential rents, including but not
limited to provision for the establishment and adjustment of maximum
rents, the classification of housing accommodations, the regulation of
evictions, and the enforcement of such local laws or ordinances. The
validity of any such local laws or ordinances, and the rules or regu-
lations promulgated in accordance therewith, shall not be affected by
and need not be consistent with the state emergency housing rent control
law or with rules and regulations of the state division of housing and
community renewal.
Notwithstanding any local law or ordinance, housing accommodations
which became vacant on or after July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one
or which hereafter become vacant shall be subject to the provisions of
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04622-01-5
A. 1498 2
the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, provided,
however, that this provision shall not apply or become effective with
respect to housing accommodations which, by local law or ordinance, are
made directly subject to regulation and control by a city housing rent
agency and such agency determines or finds that the housing accommo-
dations became vacant because the landlord or any person acting on [his]
SUCH LANDLORD'S behalf, with intent to cause the tenant to vacate,
engaged in any course of conduct (including but not limited to, inter-
ruption or discontinuance of essential services) which interfered with
or disturbed or was intended to interfere with or disturb the comfort,
repose, peace or quiet of the tenant in [his] SUCH TENANT'S use or occu-
pancy of the housing accommodations. The removal of any housing accommo-
dation from regulation and control of rents pursuant to the vacancy
exemption provided for in this paragraph shall not constitute or operate
as a ground for the subjection to more stringent regulation and control
of any housing accommodation in such property or in any other property
owned by the same landlord, notwithstanding any prior agreement to the
contrary by the landlord. The vacancy exemption provided for in this
paragraph shall not arise with respect to any rented plot or parcel of
land otherwise subject to the provisions of this act, by reason of a
transfer of title and possession occurring on or after July first, nine-
teen hundred seventy-one of a dwelling located on such plot or parcel
and owned by the tenant where such transfer of title and possession is
made to a member of the tenant's immediate family provided that the
member of the tenant's immediate family occupies the dwelling with the
tenant prior to the transfer of title and possession for a continuous
period of two years.
The term "immediate family" shall include a husband, wife, son, daugh-
ter, stepson, stepdaughter, father, mother, father-in-law or mother-in-
law.
[Notwithstanding the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall here-
after provide for the regulation and control of residential rents and
eviction in respect of any housing accommodations which are (1) present-
ly exempt from such regulation and control or (2) hereafter decontrolled
either by operation of law or by a city housing rent agency, by order or
otherwise. No housing accommodations presently subject to regulation and
control pursuant to local laws or ordinances adopted or amended under
authority of this subdivision shall hereafter be by local law or ordi-
nance or by rule or regulation which has not been theretofore approved
by the state commissioner of housing and community renewal subjected to
more stringent or restrictive provisions of regulation and control than
those presently in effect.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, on and after the effective
date of this paragraph, a city having a population of one million or
more shall not, either through its local legislative body or otherwise,
adopt or amend local laws or ordinances with respect to the regulation
and control of residential rents and eviction, including but not limited
to provision for the establishment and adjustment of rents, the classi-
fication of housing accommodations, the regulation of evictions, and the
enforcement of such local laws or ordinances, or otherwise adopt laws or
ordinances pursuant to the provisions of this act, the emergency tenant
protection act of nineteen seventy-four, the New York city rent and
rehabilitation law or the New York city rent stabilization law, except
to the extent that such city for the purpose of reviewing the continued
need for the existing regulation and control of residential rents or to
remove a classification of housing accommodation from such regulation
A. 1498 3
and control adopts or amends local laws or ordinances pursuant to subdi-
vision three of section one of this act, section three of the emergency
tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, section 26-415 of the
New York city rent and rehabilitation law, and sections 26-502 and
26-520 of the New York city rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred
sixty-nine.]
Notwithstanding the foregoing, no local law or ordinance shall subject
to such regulation and control any housing accommodation which is not
occupied by the tenant in possession as [his or her] THEIR primary resi-
dence; provided, however, that such housing accommodation not occupied
by the tenant in possession as [his or her] THEIR primary residence
shall continue to be subject to regulation and control as provided for
herein unless the city housing rent agency issues an order decontrolling
such accommodation, which the agency shall do upon application by the
landlord whenever it is established by any facts and circumstances
which, in the judgment of the agency, may have a bearing upon the ques-
tion of residence, that the tenant maintains [his or her] THEIR primary
residence at some place other than at such housing accommodation. For
the purposes of determining primary residency, a tenant who is a victim
of domestic violence, as defined in section four hundred fifty-nine-a of
the social services law, who has left the unit because of such violence,
and who asserts an intent to return to the housing accommodation shall
be deemed to be occupying the unit as [his or her] THEIR primary resi-
dence.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
the amendments to subdivision 5 of section 1 of chapter 21 of the laws
of 1962 made by section one of this act shall remain in full force and
effect only so long as the public emergency requiring the regulation and
control of residential rents and evictions continues, as provided in
subdivision 3 of section 1 of the local emergency housing rent control
act.