Court Clarifies Applicability of New York Rent Stabilization Laws To Former Mitchell-Lama Projects

摘要

When an owner of three apartment buildings constructed before 1969 exited the Mitchell-Lama program in 1998, the apartments became subject to rent stabilization under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 (ETPA), not the Rent Stabilization Law of 1969 (RSL), ruled the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. (In re KSLM-Columbus Apartments, Inc. v. New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2004 WL 354310 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept.), February 26, 2004) When New York City enacted the RSL, it specifically exempted Mitchell-Lama buildings, which were subject to special regulatory rent controls. In 1971, the state legislature passed a vacancy decontrol law, but in 1974, it enacted the ETPA, which empowered New York City to declare a housing emergency and extend rent stabilization. The city council did so in June 1974. The issue in this case, one of first impression, is whether the provisions of the ETPA or only those of the original RSL applied to the apartments once KSLM opted out of the Mitchell-Lama program.