Landlords say rent-control hike needed to make crucial repairs to aging buildings
A final decision for what the rent hike rate will be will come down in June.
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A proposed rent hike of nearly 5% for rent-controlled apartments has angered residents, but landlords who maintain the properties say current rents are leaving them unable to make crucial repairs on aging buildings.
"We want to repair elevators that are obsolete, but that's hundreds of thousands of dollars and that is not in the cards," says building manager Chris Athineos, of Bay Ridge.
He says his building from 1933 needs upgrades, including to a boiler from the 1990s. Athineos also says the building needs more washing machines and requires upgrades to water filtration to keep it up to building efficiency standards.
"We have made some smart improvements, solar panels to keep our A rating. But eventually we will be penalized when we cannot keep up with the flat rents," he said. "This building is from 1933. This is like getting a car from 1933 on today's roads, what that would take."
But it's not just infrastructure upgrades that are driving up costs for properties, as the building recently had to replace a stolen mailbox and install Amazon Lockers after a string of porch pirates targeted the property.
"We would want an upgrade to the camera systems, to security, and that's thousands too," Athineos says.
He tells News 12 his building would need a 6% rate hike to keep up with structural repairs to facades, cracking concrete and more.
"Right now, we are doing Band-Aids, doing the best we can because the city will not give us the resources to upgrade our buildings," he says.
A final decision for what the rent hike rate will be will come down in June.
