New York Rent Laws
ETPA Table of Contents

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

Sec. 3.   LOCAL DETERMINATION OF EMERGENCY; END OF EMERGENCY.

a.   The existence of public emergency requiring the regulation
     of residential rents for all or any class or classes of
     housing accommodations, including any plot or parcel of land
     which had been rented prior to May first, nineteen hundred
     fifty, for the purpose of permitting the tenant thereof to
     construct or place his own dwelling thereon and on which
     plot or parcel of land there exists a dwelling owned and
     occupied by a tenant of such plot or parcel, heretofore
     destabilized; heretofore or hereafter decontrolled, exempt,
     not subject to control, or exempted from regulation and
     control under the provisions of the emergency housing rent
     control law, the local emergency housing rent control act or
     the New York city rent stabilization law of nineteen hundred
     sixty-nine; or subject to stabilization or control under
     such rent stabilization law, shall be a matter for local
     determination within each city, town or village. Any such
     determination shall be made by the local legislative body of
     such city, town or village on the basis of the supply of
     housing accommodations within such city, town or village,
     the condition of such accommodations and the need for
     regulating and controlling residential rents within such
     city, town or village. A declaration of emergency may be
     made as to any class of housing accommodations if the
     vacancy rate for the housing accommodations in such class
     within such municipality is not in excess of five percent
     and a declaration of emergency may be made as to all housing
     accommodations if the vacancy rate for the housing
     accommodations within such municipality is not in excess of
     five percent.

b.   The local governing body of a city, town or village having
     declared an emergency pursuant to subdivision a of this
     section may at any time, on the basis of the supply of
     housing accommodations within such city, town or village,
     the condition of such accommodations and the need for
     continued regulation and control of residential rents within
     such municipality, declare that the emergency is either
     wholly or partially abated or that the regulation of rents
     pursuant to this act does not serve to abate such emergency
     and thereby remove one or more classes of accommodations
     from regulation under this act. The emergency must be
     declared at an end once the vacancy rate described in
     subdivision a of this section exceeds five percent.

c.   No resolution declaring the existence or end of an
     emergency, as authorized by subdivisions a and b of this
     section, may be adopted except after public hearing held on
     not less than ten days public notice, as the local
     legislative body may reasonably provide.