New negotiations on 421-a were reported this morning. The latest rumors involve a 45 year tax benefit with a minimum wage of $60 an hour for 300-plus unit developments in luxury neighborhoods and $45 an hour elsewhere.

Buildings over 25,000 square feet will have to file energy benchmarking reports under legislation signed by the Mayor, Monday, but the effective date is unlikely to be before 2018. The law says that the City must first ensure that utility companies can directly upload individual building consumption data to the EPA Portfolio Manager before the law will be enforced. The Mayor also signed bills requiring energy efficient common area lighting in residential buildings by 2025, and electric submetering of commercial spaces by 2025 as well.

Flood zone rules are ebbing and flowing. Mayor de Blasio announced a deal with FEMA to reconsider expanded flood zones that would have increased multifamily construction costs far inland in Brooklyn, Queens and lower Manhattan. At the same time, however, HUD proposed a rule that would limit FHA insurance on multifamily projects in areas 2-3 feet higher than the 100 year flood line–essentially the same area of expanded flood zones the City protested.

The City Council is considering legislation targeting “predatory equity,” but even the administration doesn’t know what that is. Essentially, the bills want to make it easier to charge tenant harassment where owners have high debt to income ratios, on the assumption that those properties are owned by speculators who have to drive tenants out to get higher rents. Practically, the highest debt ratios tend to be on affordable housing projects…but Council members at a hearing didn’t want to hear it.

Airbnb is expected to settle its case against new legislation barring the advertisement of illegal short term rentals if the State agrees not to fine them for hosting the ads. The State is expected to agree because the law is targeted at the advertisers, not the medium, in any case.

DHCR this week announced updates to several fact sheets and to the policy statement on decontrolling rent controlled apartments. As discussed at yesterday’s CHIP Compliance seminar, the decontrol policy now says to serve the first decontrolled tenant with an RR-1a instead of an RR-1 Initial registration form, but the new policy is legally questionable. The RR-1 contains an important notice that gives tenants 90 days to challenge the Fair Market Rent and both forms should probably now be served, several attorneys agreed.

Fact Sheet #7 – Sublets, Assignments and Illusory Tenancies: http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac7.pdf

Fact Sheet # 20 –  Special Rights of Disabled Persons: http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac20.pdf

Fact Sheet # 21 – Special Rights of Senior Citizens: http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac21.pdf
Policy Statement 2014-1 “Filing Requirements Upon Vacancy of Rent Controlled Apartment”: http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/PolicyStatements/ORAP20141.PDF

Finally, in case you missed the news, Tuesday is election day. Vote.

The Building Congress reported this week that while overall residential construction spending is expected to increase, the number of new housing units produced is forecast to decline from 36,850 units last year to 31,300 in 2016. Looking ahead, the Building Congress forecast calls for 27,000 new units and $13.1 billion of residential spending in 2017, and 25,000 units and $12.7 billion in spending in 2018.

One reason for the decline is the expiration of 421-a tax incentives, but ProPublica reported that most of the 6400 rental properties currently receiving benefits did not have approved applications on file with the City and did not register apartments as rent stabilized as required. Three to ten unit buildings were the most likely not to register.

New York City tax revenues are dropping (subscription required) in every category but property tax this year, ending the post recession upswing, according to a report yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. While assessments are up more than 10%, real estate transfer taxes are down 9.7%, business taxes are down 26.1%, and personal income taxes are down 3.3%. Since 2014, however, the City has hired 16,000 people and increased the budget from $70 billion to $82 billion.

You don’t have to register as a lobbyist to file or expedite a building permit, according to an advisory opinion from the City Clerk’s office issued this week.

The FHA will assist sites like mymortgagegermany.de provide condominium loans in buildings with only 35% of the units occupied by owners, vs. the current 50%, under a policy issued Wednesday.

Crane operators are suing to overturn the City’s new policy of shutting down operations when winds exceed 30 miles per hour, saying manufacturer’s recommendations for different cranes and situation are the appropriate safety guide and that the City rule, adopted after an accident, is arbitrary.

The Post reported Monday that a tenant lawyer settled grand larceny charges and agreed to pay $720 restitution to a client’s landlord after the lawyer ripped down a camera installed over the tenant’s door.

Governor Cuomo has until October 29th, but is expected to act sooner, on the AirBnb bill which would prohibit advertising illegal short term rentals…and severely crimp AirBnb’s business model. The company and opponents were still fighting while the Governor deliberated.

Multiple tenants in buildings owned by A&E Real Estate Holdings have sued in Supreme Court, claiming that individual apartment rent increases were inflated to deregulate apartments. A spokesperson for A&E noted that the Housing Rights Initiative, which organized the tenants, did not ask them about the charges before going to court, and that 52 of 55 examples cited dated to prior ownership.

A jewel thief and a man the press dubbed a ninja were among the other rent stabilized tenants in the news (and court) this week. The thief is trying to keep her apartment as a primary residence while jailed out of state, while the second tenant’s landlord has taken him to court for waving his sword at fellow tenants, abusing his dog in the lobby, and damaging the building generally.

And a tenant sued the City, unsuccessfully, to try to get the zoning prohibition against lit signs on high residential floors ruled unconstitutional. The court said the tenant did not have a free-speech right to a neon peace sign in her condo’s 17th floor window.

HPD has begun enforcement of prevailing wage requirements for building service employees in buildings receiving 421a tax benefits. Owners report receiving notices in the mail to show they meet the standards.

Thirty story apartment towers are envisioned for parts of East Harlem according to city officials outlining the Mayor’s rezoning plans for the area at a community meeting this week. The meeting was to get neighborhood feedback before formal changes are proposed.

What price history? There were reports yesterday that the Landmarks Preservation Commission would consider extending the South Village Historic District in lower Manhattan in exchange for the local councilman’s support of a 1.7 million square foot project, including 1,586 apartments, that the de Blasio administration wants approved on Washington Street across from Pier 40.

Buildings between 25,000 and 50,000 square feet will have to start filing electricity and water benchmarking data when the City determines that utilities can upload the information directly to the EPA Portfolio Manager website, according to legislation approved by the City Council yesterday.

The Council also approved a bill requiring existing buildings over 25,000 square feet to meet the lighting standards currently in effect for new buildings by 2025.

DHCR has reduced the monthly air conditioning surcharge permitted in electric inclusion buildings to $26.65 per month effective October 1st.

The City Planning Department formally started the process to rezone Gowanus for higher density housing this week, beginning a typically 18 month process. Less formally, City Limits reports, the administration is pushing new development on vacant land in Brownsville, along with new neighborhood programs, that might have an equally dramatic effect.

Pro Publica is attacking the NYPD and City for forcing tenants to agree to vacate to end nuisances that were, in fact, not proven. Private owners have long had difficulties when forced to make nuisance cases by the authorities with little support in the way of evidence and no sympathy in the courts.

Which part of history is historic? That’s the question in a lawsuit brought by opponents of new five story buildings approved by the Landmarks Commission at 60-68 and 70-74 Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking district. They say the buildings are too tall compared with the two story buildings on the block since the 30’s. But, the Commission noted that there were five story tenements there before, earlier in the 20th century. They are both right, of course, and history will tell us who wins.

Public Advocate Letitia James came out with her 100 worst landlords list, yesterday, claiming to have fixed problems with errors in prior lists by sending her staff out to visit each building, take pictures, and talk to tenants. Nevertheless, number 25 is still the owner of a former hotel that is being renovated and doesn’t have any tenants…as was pointed out last year and the year before.

There is something in the air about air rights. The Mayor’s office is holding meetings to discuss unspecified changes and religious and non-profit groups are leery of a minimum price per square foot being proposed in the midtown east area. They are concerned that the City will get greedy and set a price too high to allow them to cash out.

And speaking of cash, HPD employees may have to give some back after the City issued as much as 40% raises to almost 300 of them in violation of collective bargaining agreements. Reports don’t say who complained.

NY Housing Authority maintenance workers are routinely falsifying reports on whether smoke alarms are working and other safety information, according to a report issued Tuesday by the City Department of Investigation.

Governor Cuomo signed legislation late last week providing for the $30,000 per unit assessed value cap to qualify for J51 benefits to be raised to $32,000 for assessments finalized next year and increase by a cost of living adjustment thereafter.

He also signed a bill allowing SCRIE and DRIE tenants who are disqualified from benefits for just one year because of excessive income to go back to their old frozen rent if they requalify the next year.

Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio announced that 20,000 new SCRIE and DRIE tenants had qualified for benefits since the income limit was raised to $50,000 in 2014, and that 77,000 more were potentially eligible.

Perhaps foreshadowing his view on City Council proposals to make it harder for any property owner  to reject prospective tenants for bad credit, the Mayor issued new rules this month for housing lotteries on City assisted housing that prohibit rejecting someone solely for a poor credit score. The new criteria also force owners to ignore most Housing Court histories that do not result in an order of possession or eviction.

HUD assisted housing with 21 units or more will have to begin benchmarking water and energy use with the EPA Portfolio manager, at least triennially, beginning next April according to a notice in the Federal Register this week.

If you missed our Estate Planning seminar yesterday you did not hear the warning about a proposed IRS rule that would prohibit the longstanding practice of discounting the value of property gifts and family trust contributions because the recipients have limited control and cannot market them for full value.

No. 2 and 4 oil will have to be 5% biodiesel by October 1, 2017 under legislation passed by the City Council, last week.  No. 2 oil would have increasing percentages beginning in 2025.

The Council also passed legislation conforming the City Energy Code to changes in the State Code.

Also, the City Council is moving closer to passing legislation to give poor tenants legal assistance in housing court. Apparently, politicians believe paying millions for motion practice instead of rent somehow preserves affordable housing.

The NAHB is leading national business groups in a legal challenge to the new overtime law, hoping to delay implementation of the rule in December and at the same time get legislation phasing in the requirements to give workers earning over about $24,000 overtime, over time.

The White House issued a Housing Development Toolkit for municipalities last week, emphasizing the need for both high density as-of-right zoning and, somewhat contradictorily, inclusionary zoning.

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has been accused of asking the City Housing Authority to replace a black manager with an Hispanic one.

The De Blasio administration is considering putting income caps on purchasers of 30,000 HDFC co-ops to keep them affordable.

An interactive map showing the percentage of units deregulated in every building since 2007; the number of building permits issued for each building since 2013; and buildings purchased in 2015 for more than the average price per unit in a neighborhood was released Wednesday by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. ANHD believes he data points to neighborhoods where the poor are threatened with displacement, although industry and City officials say re-investment in property is essential to maintain housing for all income levels.

Meanwhile, in another blow to the Mayor’s efforts to encourage affordable housing development, Phipps Houses has abandoned its plan to build 209 affordable units on a parking lot in Sunnyside, without displacing anyone, because of opposition by neighbors and the local Councilman.

The City administration did score a victory of sorts, however, with the Council seeming ready to accept a precedent setting Planning Department ruling that Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning does not apply to a Chelsea project where the air rights of adjacent properties were reconfigured to permit a condo development without adding units subject to affordability requirements.

Developers’ and contractors’ associations are at odds over the discovery that the Building Contractors Association, which is supposed to represent contractors negotiating with labor unions, helped fund the union campaign for prevailing wages on 421a projects that helped kill the incentive program last Spring.

The apartments that do get built in New York are smaller, according to Bloomberg News. Part of the shrinkage is due to a higher percentage of studio and one bedroom units being built, but even those are shrinking. Six years ago, 22% of studios and one bedrooms in New York and San Francisco were under 600 square feet. Now 29% are smaller.

The City Council, Wednesday, passed legislation requiring residential building owners to allow bicycles in elevators, and to allow foldable bicycles in commercial and residential building elevators. The bills, which do not address space or safety concerns raised by the industry, now go to the Mayor.

Immediately after declaring victory in the State Senate primary for the 31st District, Tuesday, Democrat Marisol Alcantara aligned herself with the Independent Democratic Conference. It’s not clear yet if that will be better for the Republican majority or Democratic hopefuls, but leaves IDC leader Jeff Klein more powerful in any case.

Define dead. The Department of Buildings counted 12 construction related deaths last year and OSHA counted 17–different ones. Turns out OSHA is looking at construction workers killed as a result of worker safety problems and DOB counts only fatalities that involve safety issues for people other than construction workers.

Governor Cuomo announced his long awaited plan for spending $2 billion on housing programs Wednesday, sort of. When the Legislature appropriated the money they left the details to be worked out in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Governor and Legislative leaders. The Governor, however, issued the memorandum without an understanding. The Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader said they’d look at it.

The Mayor’s office, yesterday, opposed City Council bills calling for a report on city-owned vacant properties and registration requirements for privately owned vacant properties. The Council apparently believes the bills would encourage housing development, but the Administration said that the information was already available in various reports and databases and that the reports would just encourage speculation and raise land prices.

HUD, yesterday, issued a guidance to landlords barring policies that discriminate against tenants who can’t speak English, or speak with an accent, noting that language can be a proxy for discrimination on the basis of national origin.

HUD has issued new 2017 Fair Market Rents, effective October 1st. The maximums are about a 4% increase over 2016: $1352 for a studio, $1419 for a one bedroom, $1637 for a two bedroom, $2101 for a three and $2267 for a four. HUD did not impose proposed Small Area Fair Market Rents nationally, but is expanding its trial of the zip code based rent setting method from Dallas to Bergen-Passaic, NJ and San Diego for 2017.

Ever wonder what HPD inspectors’ homes look like? One of them carved up his basement into illegal apartments, according to the Daily News.

Citi Habitats has become the first apartment broker to partner with Rentlogic, a new web listing service that posts landlord grades based on violations and complaints.

The ECB judgment amnesty program starts Monday. For judgments where you did not attend a hearing, the amnesty amount due will be the base penalty without additional penalties for failing to attend the hearing or interest. If you did attend a hearing, you may resolve your judgments by paying only 75% of the base penalty amount, also without interest.

There has been a lot of talk about the concentration of ownership of apartments, but it turns out construction has been consolidating too. An NAHB analysis found that large firms have taken a much larger share of home construction markets nationally, with, for example, the largest four firms in the Miami metro going from 21.9% of all housing construction in 2009 to 72.9% in 2015. In the New York metro area, the top four residential builders went from producing about 14% to 19% of units closed over the same period and builders who closed more than 3,000 units a year represented 21% of the NY/NJ metro market in 2015.

Mayor de Blasio, this week, bragged that increased City spending had increased the number of tenants represented by lawyers in Housing Court from 1% in 2013 to 27% in 2015. The report he based the claim on, however, also noted several past studies–all using different methodologies–that found that 10-24 percent of tenants in Housing Court typically had attorneys. The Mayor also said legal assistance had helped bring the number of evictions down from 28,000 in 2013 to 22,000 in 2013…but did not note that the number of evictions was also about 22,000 in 2005, 2004, 2001 and many prior years per Rent Guidelines Board studies.

The Department of Finance has started issuing fines of up to $100,000 against property owners who failed to file 2015 RPIE forms by June 1st. Fines start at $300 for property assessed at less than $100,000 and cap out at values over $25 million. More than 5,000 buildings are being cited in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, although some, reportedly, are listed in error.

The formal planning process for the Mayor’s proposed upzoning of the Jerome Avenue corridor in the Bronx began this week. The Department of City Planning projects the rezoning could lead to 3,250 new apartments in the 73 block area.

Another 730 units are possible if the Economic Development Corporation is successful in rezoning the full block African Burial Ground site, currently an MTA bus depot, at Second Avenue and 126th Street.

The Division of Homes and Community Renewal isn’t just about Rent Administration. It also might be involved in corrupt housing development schemes. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has subpoenaed records to find out.