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Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Johnson recently announced the formation of a new advisory commission to develop recommendations to reform NYC’s property tax system with the goal of making it simpler, clearer, and fairer, while ensuring that there is no reduction in revenue used to fund essential city services. The commission will solicit input from the public by holding at least 10 public hearings.

The last in-depth review of the system by a government-...

An audit by state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that annual elevator inspections by outside contracted companies need stronger oversight. The audit looked at work done by certified elevator inspectors who worked for companies contracted by the DOB. While the DOB has 48 staff inspectors (as of July 2017), it regularly uses private companies to perform the annual inspections required of the city’s 71,000 elevators. Auditors and DOB inspectors accompanied the non...

The Rent Guidelines Board recently issued a report highlighting additions and subtractions of dwelling units to and from the rent stabilization system in 2017. These statistics are gathered from various city and state agencies. This report is an update of previous studies done annually since 2003, when an analysis was done of the changes in New York City’s rent-stabilized housing stock from 1994 to 2002.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer recently issued a report detailing Airbnb’s effect on housing affordability from 2009 to 2016. The report says that when people put up their apartments for short-term stays, they are basically removing them from the rental market, lowering the housing supply and increasing the price of units that are still available. Among the Comptroller’s findings:

Democratic gubernatorial challenger Cynthia Nixon recently released her plan to overhaul rent regulations. Nixon is promising to work with state lawmakers to reclaim and protect all units that were removed from rent stabilization through vacancy decontrol. She is seeking to re-regulate all of the apartments that are still rentals and were lost as a result of vacancy decontrol.

In 2019, New York’s rent regulation laws are set to expire. Nixon points to five a...

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently proposed increasing the New York City water and sewer rates by 2.36 percent to the NYC Water Board. Water Board rates are based on the cost of providing utility services and servicing outstanding debts that relate to water and wastewater assets.

The City Council recently passed several resolutions calling on the State Legislature to strengthen rent laws. Although the state law on rent regulation doesn’t expire until next June, it’s possible that the State Legislature may pursue the renewal of rent laws before the end of its legislative session. And the City Council is urging the state to make the changes that are called for in the resolutions.

A judge recently ordered a Tribeca rent-stabilized artist to leave her apartment and pay a fine of $185,000 for illegally listing it on Airbnb. The tenant, who paid $1,500 a month for her rent-stabilized two-bedroom apartment, was sued by her landlord in 2014, who claimed she was earning about $4,500 a month from Airbnb guests.

The New York State Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL) established the standards for all buildings containing three or more dwelling units. The MDL flatly prohibits unhosted rentals of less than 30 days in “Class A” multiple dwellings. These are buildings occupied by three or more families living independently.

Some state lawmakers in Albany are considering amending the state human rights law to make it illegal to discriminate against tenants based on where they receive their income. The change would include a “lawful source of income” provision that would protect people using government assistance or other forms of non-wage income to pay their rent from housing discrimination.