New York Rent Laws
ETPA Table of Contents

The NYS Emergency Tenant Protection Act (1974) [ETPA]

Sec. 2.   LEGISLATIVE FINDING.

The legislature hereby finds and declares that a serious public
emergency continues to exist in the housing of a considerable
number of persons in the state of New York which emergency was at
its inception created by war, the effects of war and the
aftermath of hostilities, that such emergency necessitated the
intervention of federal, state and local government in order to
prevent speculative, unwarranted and abnormal increases in rents;
that there continues to exist in many areas of the state an acute
shortage of housing accommodations caused by continued high
demand, attributable in part to new household formations and
decreased supply, in large measure attributable to reduced
availability of federal subsidies, and increased costs of
construction and other inflationary factors; that a substantial
number of persons residing in housing not presently subject to
the provisions of the emergency housing rent control law or the
local emergency housing rent control act are being charged
excessive and unwarranted rents and rent increases; that
preventive action by the legislature continues to be imperative
in order to prevent exaction of unjust, unreasonable and
oppressive rents and rental agreements and to forestall
profiteering, speculation and other disruptive practices tending
to produce threats to the public health, safety and general
welfare; that in order to prevent uncertainty, hardship and
dislocation, the provisions of this act are necessary and
designed to protect the public health, safety and general
welfare; that the transition from regulation to a normal market
of free bargaining between landlord and tenant, while the
ultimate objective of state policy, must take place with due
regard for such emergency; and that the policy herein expressed
shall be subject to determination of the existence of a public
emergency requiring the regulation of residential rents within
any city, town or village by the local legislative body of such
city, town or village.