Legal rents must be shown in all renewals of preferential leases, according to an updated Fact Sheet quietly released by DHCR last week. The Fact Sheet also outlines the changes to vacancy allowances after a preferential lease per the Rent Act of 2015, and says penalties for tenants’ failure to qualify for prompt payment discounts aren’t enforceable under preferential rent rules.
The U.S. Senate released an outline of its proposed tax reform bill yesterday, calling for complete elimination of the state and local tax deduction but preserving the current home mortgage interest deduction. The release said that the Low Income Housing Tax Credit would be preserved, as in last week’s House plan, but it wasn’t clear if the Senate would restore the key private activity bond financing the House wants to kill. The tax exempt bonds are used for as much as half of the housing tax credit development
When Mayor de Blasio announced a 50% increase in his subsidized housing development and preservation plan last week he didn’t mention that the cost per unit will double. The extra 100,000 units will cost as much as the first 200,000.
The numbers behind the Mayor’s re-election “mandate” this week are also interesting. He actually got almost 70,000 fewer votes than in 2013 despite a slightly higher turnout.
The Democratic sweeps in Weschester and Nassau County elections, however, may have implications for next year’s State Senate races. One county legislature seat in Nassau and three in Westchester flipped from Republican to Democrat. In New York City Council races, winners tended to be the most vocal against development.
A federal jury in Brooklyn found the developer of the 5Pointz project in Long Island City guilty of violating the Visual Artists Rights Act in an “advisory” verdict. The judge will consider the jury’s opinion of whether the owner violated the law by destroying graffiti he allowed to be painted on the buildings.
What has rent control done for the San Francisco housing market? It spurred condo conversion and redevelopment that led to a 7% increase in rents over what they would have been without controls, costing tenants $5 billion, see all the latest updates in the new study.
Do you have all the required signage in your buildings? Probably not. Check out CHIP’s draft list of more than 100 required signs in the Resources section of the CHIPNYC.ORG website and let us know if we’ve missed any. Members only.