The BRI Reacts to SCOTUS Declining to Hear its Challenge to NY Rent Stabilization Law
On November 12, 2024, the US Supreme Court declined to grant certiorari to two landlords’ challenges (one of them being the BRI) on New York’s rent stabilization law, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA).
Below is a statement from our President, Lisa DeRosa, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision.
“While we are not surprised, we are disheartened that we will not have our day in court, especially considering the clear constitutional problems created by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. That law altered the contracts with our tenants in the middle of the terms in a manner that is significantly more detrimental to property owners, our rights, and the financial stability of our buildings, all without any compensation.
Our rent-stabilized property owners still face a multitude of challenges, including issues with elevators, boilers, and neglected or vacant apartments that we simply do not have the funds to fix. The elimination of the vacancy bonus has hindered our capacity to recover renovation costs without raising rents for any existing tenants, and the excessive modifications to the IAI (Individual Apartment Improvement) and MCI (Major Capital Improvement) processes, which are draining our older buildings of essential investments, are ultimately causing frustration and inconvenience for both tenants and owners. As was predicted when HSTPA passed in 2019, financial lenders have changed their assessment of the desirability of making loans to rent-stabilized properties given the new rules of the road and the many years of below-inflation rent increases. Valuation on the relatively few sales of multifamily buildings have plummeted and will only continue to do so.
With the Supreme Court declining to hear the case, our only option now is to advocate to state lawmakers, urging them to reconsider the HSTPA in light of these consequences, and to make necessary adjustments to last year’s changes to strike a better balance between affordability for renters and fiscal sustainability for property owners.”