With rents skyrocketing, a lot of people think that we could see a new round of rent control regulations pop up in metros around the country. But in the city where half of apartments are under rent control, the owners of one property decided to challenge the law.
The New York Times reports that James D. Harmon Jr. and Jeanne Harmon, owners of a five-story brownstone, challenged rent control regulations (which they say allow renters to pay 60 percent less than market rate,) contending that it “amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property.”
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York ruled against the Harmons saying that, essentially, they knew what they were doing when they bought the building and still retained the ability to reclaim apartments, demolish the building and evict tenants, according to the Times.
The Harmons took their case to The Supreme Court. Today, the court declined to hear the case, theoretically boosting a locality's ability to enact rent control regulations. As rents go up, do you expect to face rent control regulations in other areas of the country?
