Tenant Briefs

Pataki Kills His Parents and Pleads for Mercy as Orphan

Within days of signing the Rent Regulatory Reform Act of 1997, Governor George Pataki, at public expense, mailed hundreds of thousands of flyers to regulated tenants in New York City claiming that he had protected them from harmful changes in the rent laws. Additionally, he claimed he had brought "the two sides together," implying that he was not allied to the goals of the real estate industry he has always championed before ascending to Governor.

The flyer, in a signed message from Pataki, claimed that "Your concerns about rent protections are over." Of course, it did not mention the mandatory rent deposits, enormous vacancy increases, or any of the other weakening amendments that were added to the rent laws or the Governor’s attempts to destroy them outright through vacancy decontrol.

Pataki’s flyer claims the changes in harassment penalties will make it possible for the landlord to "spend up to four years in state prison." It fails to mention that the new sanctions don’t apply to any form of harassment other than physical assault.

Although Pataki and Joseph Bruno, the Republican Majority Leader of the State Senate, repeatedly promised to protect seniors and the disabled, the final bill offered no such protections.

Overall, the flyer cynically exploits the end of the immediate jeopardy that most rent-regulated New Yorkers felt from Bruno’s threats to end controls. Tenants who didn’t know what the changes mean felt relieved that the fight had come to an end. This short-term gratification is the essence of the weakness of the tenant movement. As rent-regulated apartments disappear and enforcement is dismantled piece by piece, the end of all controls will be just a matter of time. The tenant movement woke up for Joe Bruno; now it needs to do so for tenants.

—William Rowen

Landlord Press Praises Rent Deal

"Rent Law Chops at Controls" was the headline in the June 25 issue of Real Estate Weekly, reporting that the Associated Builders and Owners is thinking of honoring Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as its Man of the Year.

"After all, it was the Speaker who handed over a minimum 20 percent bonus or $100 bonus for apartments with low rents with no work required upon vacancy," wrote reporter Lois Weiss. The new law, she noted, also "added a longevity bonus for vacancies after long-time tenancies; required the deposit of rent with the court"; obtained rights to move out a small number of holdout tenants in order to build new housing; limited succession rights to one generation without rent hikes and jacked up rents to the next."

The article also celebrated the lower threshold for high-income decontrol ("tenants making $250,000 had just too high an income level for impoverished building owners to provide them with rent subsidies") and the elimination of "the City Council’s April end-run" that barred high-rent decontrol unless the previous tenant was already paying at least $2,000 a month.

"A year ago, these items would have been merely wishful thinking on the part of over-paperworked owners," Weiss wrote, praising "Silver’s quiet forcefulness, Senator Joseph Bruno’s zealousness and the Governor’s pledge to protect poor tenants."

Owners, Weiss observed, "were toasting but not roasting the politicians." Rent Guidelines Board chair Edward Hochman quipped "Why not a flat 25 percent vacancy increase and we could all go home." "In any other year this would be called the most significant change to the rent regulation system ever," said Rent Stabilization Association head Joseph Strasburg.

"While the new law doesn’t end rent control and rent stabilization, it offers many changes that benefit owners," said the July issue of the New York Apartment Law Insider, which provides practical tips for landlords. It called rent deposits "a big benefit to owners who are suing tenants for nonpayment," especially the new restrictions on judges’ ability to delay evictions. Noting the Pataki administration’s decision to let landlords collect a 29 percent increase on vacant apartments before Oct. 1, it suggested that landlords "try to rent any vacant apartment as quickly as possible" and get a lease dated on or before Sept. 30.

In the August issue, another article noted that "the new law should cut down on the number of rent overcharge complaints that tenants win."

—William Rowen and Steven Wishnia

Lazio Public-Housing Bill Unlikely to Pass

For the second year in a row, a Republican-sponsored bill repealing the nation’s New Deal public-housing law appears unlikely to pass. The measure, H.R. 2, sponsored by Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio, would deregulate public housing, repealing the Public Housing Act of 1937. The House and Senate versions differ slightly, but in general, both would force tenants to perform community service in exchange for keeping their homes; give tenants rent vouchers for privately owned housing instead of space in publicly owned housing projects; make it easier for local housing authorities to demolish projects; and allow them to raise rents and give higher-income tenants priority for vacant apartments.

The Senate version, S. 462, also contains draconian anti-drug provisions, including requiring applicants for public housing to turn over confidential alcohol and drug-treatment records. It appears to allow the eviction of whole families for drug use without a criminal conviction, if the local housing authority has "knowledge" that any family member is using any illegal drug.

A similar bill died last year, when tenants fiercely opposed it and House and Senate Republicans failed to agree on the details. Tenant advocates say the same thing is likely to happen this year, as Lazio continues to push for a hard-line deregulatory policy while Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY) takes a more moderate line. "Lazio’s such a putz that D’Amato doesn’t want to see him get credit for anything," says one activist.

—Steven Wishnia

World’s Oldest Woman Beats Real-Estate Speculator

When the world’s oldest woman, Jeanne Calment of Arles, France, died at 122 in early August, she had beaten the odds on a real-estate deal she made at the youthful age of 90, 32 years before her death.

A lawyer, André-François Raffray, bought the rights to her apartment for 2,500 francs a month (about $400 now) paying her until she died, at which time her apartment would revert to him. Many elderly rent-regulated New Yorkers, especially during the coop/condo conversion boom years in the 1980s, were approached by speculators offering similar deals.

The New York Times reported that Raffray died a year ago after paying Calment more than $180,000 over 32 years, more than twice the value of the apartment. His family continued the payments after he died. She had moved to a nursing home 12 years before, but retained possession of her apartment and the right to the payments because she was still alive.

Such deals obviously speculate on the mortality of the tenant. A New York tenant we knew who was a widower and tenant activist a number of years ago died a few months after being offered $75,000 for the rights to his apartment, which was in a building being converted to a co-op. He rejected the offer because, at 75, and in good health, he thought it was not enough. Jeanne Calment, the Times reported, commenting on her deal, said, "In life, one sometimes makes bad deals." Obviously she was referring to the lawyer, Raffray, not herself.

—William Rowen