Loft Law Expires
by Jenny Laurie

As of July 7, when Tenant/Inquilino went to press, New York City’s 10,000 loft tenants were hanging in limbo-land, following the expiration of the state’s loft law on June 30.

While state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who represent many of the tenants, worked hard to fashion a renewal agreement, Republican Governor George Pataki and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno refused to renew the law without major concessions on other issues, such as Pataki’s Medicaid cuts. Much of the problem stems from Pataki and Bruno’s deep desire to punish and humiliate Silver. So, with no agreement by June 30, the law expired.

In place since 1982, the law covers tenants in residential loft spaces in commercial buildings. Under the law, owners of these buildings are barred from collecting rent increases or evicting their tenants until the building is brought up to city Buildings Department standards for such things as fire safety. Once it is ready for a certificate of occupancy, the owner can collect rent increases, phasing in a repayment of the costs of bringing the buildings up to code. The law covered (and we expect will cover again) residential tenants living in lofts since 1981. Most of the 4,000 units are in lower Manhattan, with a few in Brooklyn and Queens.

Owners of these properties can now get very high prices for the units, and so are resisting renewing the law. Originally, the loft dwellers, artists who needed large spaces and were willing to pay for installation of their own bathrooms, wiring and other necessities, were homesteading areas like SoHo. Today, the same spaces are worth millions of dollars, and the artists who made the area trendy are no longer welcome.

According to Chuck DeLaney, a leader of the Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants, tenants will soon be getting 30-day notices and facing the process of eviction if the law is not renewed soon.