If Supreme Court nixes NYC rent control, tenants and landlords would be better offBy NY Post Editorial Board
August 27, 2023
In a case that promises to utterly upend New York politics — and boost the city’s housing market — the Supreme Court may soon strike down the essence of the rent control laws.
Local politicians love nothing more than to gesture on behalf of cheaper housing, as with the City Council bill aiming to force landlords to pay broker fees on rental units, or the drive for a state law that would (in the name of limiting evictions) make rent control statewide.
This case could end the never-ending game, by gutting the core rent law.
In the process, it would end New York’s eternal housing “crisis” practically overnight — benefiting both tenants and landlords.
In May, New York landlord groups asked the court to hear their challenge to the state Rent Stabilization Law, which lets the city cap rent hikes and gives tenants a virtually ironclad right to renew their leases.
It’s led to some people renting the same unit for decades — and then passing it to a family member, caretaker or friend.
In many cases, building “owners” never regain control over those units, even if they want them for their own families or other purposes.
And that, the suit contends, amounts to an unconstitutional “taking” of property, in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
For years, few would’ve imagined the law — which dates to 1969 — could be overturned, even though it forces landlords alone to eat the cost for a public good (affordable housing) and essentially deprives them of their own property.
The US District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals both dismissed the suit after it was filed in 2019.
Yet the Supremes lately have stood up for property rights, backing owners with 6-3 votes in several key cases.
In 2021, by 6-3 they struck down a decades-old California rule that forced farms to let union organizers on their land, noting that private owners have a right to exclude people from their property.
That, argue the New York plaintiffs, is a far less intrusive “taking” than New York telling a landlord he or she must offer lease renewal at a city-dictated rent.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/08/27/getting-rid-of-nyc-rent-control-would-benefit-tenants-and-landlords/