Rent Control And History

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      Rent control can be referred to as a set of laws that are placed by price controls that are posed on renters of apartment buildings. Rent control is the older of the two rent regulation systems in place within New York City.   The state of New York has almost 60 years of experience in handling the many issues that they are faced with regarding ongoing rent regulation and has the longest amount of experience in the nation regarding the issue.   Rent control covers only those tenants whose buildings were built before February 1, 1947 and who have lived in their apartment since July 1, 1971 (if the building has fewer than three units, since April 1, 1953).   There are a total of 51 municipalities have rent control which include New York City, Albany, Buffalo and various cities, towns, and villages in Albany, Erie, Nassau, Rensselaer, Schenectady, and Westchester counties.

      President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the Emergency Price Control Act (EPCA) which was considered to be widespread nationally system that was based upon the price laws.   Price controls were the governments’ response to the inflationary pressures that resulted from a fully employed wartime economy that channeled resources exclusively to the war effort.     Residential apartments were placed under the price control plan and were made part of the EPCA.   However, not all of the counties fell under this particular regulation within the state which caused them to be subjected to federal regulation.   This caused the Federal Office of Price Administration in November, 1943 to place a temporary freeze on New York City rents based upon the March 1, 1943 levels.

Since the war was coming to end normalizations and the nation’s economic situation was then determined that it would be in the best interest for the Emergency Price Control Act to be terminated effective June 30, 1947.   This lead to Congress   passing the Federal Housing and Rent Act of 1947 which was a immediate...