Destabilized

How landlords open trap doors in New York’s tenant laws to jack up rents and escape state oversight.

Residents are worried about de facto deregulation in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood — thanks to limited enforcement of the largely voluntary systems landlords use to register rent-stabilized apartments.
Data from a housing nonprofit, obtained exclusively by THE CITY, shows where thousands of rent-stabilized units remain unaccounted for by the state.
Three years after a 2019 overhaul was supposed to stop landlords from removing most apartments from rent stabilization, thousands are left unaccounted for.
A record of your unit’s rental history from a state housing agency is the best place to start. Here’s how to get it.
Housing officials say that landlords registered 38,000 vacant units so far this year, down from the 60,000 reported in 2021. Landlords are still pressing for an end to restrictions they say keep apartments offline.
Testimony and a new report highlight how rent-regulated apartments are disappearing thanks to creative combining of units. The state is weighing rule changes that aim to end the practice.
Since THE CITY’s finding that last year some 89,000 rent-stabilized units were empty, tenants and elected officials have been taking to the streets.
Roughly 1 in 10 rent-regulated apartments were vacant in 2021, Census survey data reveals — far more than the 61,000 vacancies landlords reported to the state.
The number of empty regulated apartments nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021, a state memo obtained by THE CITY shows.
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