The Real Estate Board of New York to The New York City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings on the Existing Building Code and Intro 948-A

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The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) is the City’s leading real estate trade association representing commercial, residential, and institutional property owners, builders, managers, investors, brokers, salespeople, and other organizations and individuals active in New York City real estate. REBNY appreciates this opportunity to submit comments to the Committee on Housing and Buildings on Intros 1321 and 1422, related to the Existing Building Code, and on Intros 948-A and 1107-A, related to boarders, roomers, and lodgers in private dwellings and short-term rentals.

BILLS: Intros 1321 and 1422: Existing Building Code

SUBJECT: Intro 1321 would enact the new Existing Building Code and repeal the 1968 Building Code; while Intro 1422 would amend the administrative and construction codes, and repeal relevant sections, to enact the new Existing Building Code

SPONSORS: Council Member Sanchez (at request of the Mayor)

Taken together, these two bills would establish a new Existing Building Code (EBC) that would apply to the alteration and maintenance of existing buildings. Currently, architects and other practitioners must sort through various past building codes to determine if such work is code compliant. Having all past code reiterations in a single document should significantly simplify code compliance, saving both time and money. As such, REBNY supports this legislation.

That said, this new EBC is a significant break from previous processes. It redefines the formula for when alterations require code upgrades due to the scale of the work by adding the concept of “work area.” Therefore, the application of the EBC will require significant education of those who do work related to existing buildings. Because of this need, REBNY appreciates that the EBC will not take effect for two years. REBNY looks forward to working with the Department of Buildings on its outreach and education efforts to ensure the smoothest possible transition from current practices to doing work under this new ECB.

BILL: Intro 948-A: Changes regarding occupancy in relation to boarders, roomers, or lodgers in a private dwelling and short-term rentals in one- and two-family dwellings

Sponsors: Council Members Narcisse, Louis, Banks, Riley, Feliz, Stevens, Brooks-Powers and Salamanca

This bill would increase the number of people who can stay in short-term rentals that have been registered by the owner as a short-term rental unit. It would also allow residents to host guests in short-term rental units without being present. This bill also includes language related to access to common spaces.

BILL: Intro 1107-A Common room access for short-term rentals in one- and two-family dwellings

SUBJECT: This bill would require the owners of one- and two-family dwellings, who are hosting short-term rentals, to provide boarders, roomers, or lodgers with reasonable access to common areas within the home, not inclusive of bedrooms or offices or similar private spaces.

SPONSORS: Council members Louis, Narcisse, Riley, Brooks-Powers, Salamanca, Feliz, and Stevens

REBNY strongly supported the Council’s overwhelming adoption of Local Law 18 of 2022 and its subsequent implementing regulations, which provided much needed oversight of short-term listings in New York City. The changes made by Local Law 18 have been a benefit to the city and its residents and should not be weakened.

While the stated objective of the legislation (Intros 948-A and 1107-A) is to expand short term rental listings in one- and two-family dwellings, many of the provisions in the bills apply much more broadly. For example, the legislation amends the definition of family, which impacts all property types without regard to whether the unit is a short-term rental. Further, these provisions eliminate the obligation that the host be present during the short-term rental stay and allow the host to restrict access to certain types of space in the unit in multifamily buildings and one- and two-family homes.

Given the breadth of the bills, the legislation will increase the volume of short-term rental activity across all types of properties and will result in a proliferation of the types of safety and quality of life issues that necessitated the enactment of Local Law 18 in the first place. For instance, by allowing tenants to restrict access to portions of a unit, the legislation has the potential to create fire and life safety issues by, for example, restricting access to fire escapes. Similarly, expanding the number of people who could use the unit has the potential to create noise and other quality of life issues for current residents. These types of issues directly impact property owners by creating property management challenges, unsafe situations, legal liability, and higher insurance costs.

Given these issues, REBNY urges the Council to more fully review the potential impacts of this legislation and resist changes that weaken the important protections made in Local Law 18.