{"id":77989,"date":"2025-12-22T15:29:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/77989\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:29:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:29:06","slug":"elizabeth-landlords-challenge-20-rent-control-cap-in-ongoing-legal-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/77989\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth landlords challenge $20 rent control cap in ongoing legal battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A battle in state court over rent control in Elizabeth <\/a>ground on last week, when landlords argued against the City Council\u2019s decision to reinstate a decades old $20-a-year cap on increases it had replaced with one more generous to landlords.<\/p>\n

Superior Court Judge John Deitch heard arguments Monday and Tuesday regarding the validity of a July petition by tenants and their advocates asking the council to reinstate the cap, after the council had replaced it in 2022<\/a> with a maximum annual increase of 3%. <\/p>\n

The council granted the petitioners request to rescind the 3% limit and reinstate the $20 cap. A coalition of landlords then filed a lawsuit, prompting Deitch to issue a stay temporarily blocking the council\u2019s action, pending his final deciioun in the case, which is expected in January or February.<\/p>\n

The landlords\u2019 lawyer, Matthew Moench, argued the tenants\u2019 petition was invalid. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt did not contain enough valid, compliant signatures to move the proposed ordinance forward,\u201d Moench said.<\/p>\n

The landlords\u2019 suit also asserts that the council violated the state\u2019s public meetings law. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the City Council acted in July to restore the $20 cap, we challenged that specific ordinance because it did not comply with the Open Public Meetings Act<\/a> and state statutes governing how ordinances must be adopted,” Moench said.<\/p>\n

Under the law, an ordinance requires at least 10 days between readings and proper advance publication. In this case, the landlords\u2019 suit argues, the council acted with only six days between meetings, and the notice was published the same day the action was taken.<\/p>\n

Moench said the judge will decide on the validity of the petition first. If he finds that it\u2019s invalid, he could invalidate the ordinance restoring the $20 cap on those grounds. If he finds the petition is valid, he would then decide whether passage of the ordinance complied with the state meetings law.<\/p>\n

Rent control is a critical issue in Elizabeth, where rental apartments accounted for 74.6% of all housing in 2023, or more than twice the national rate of 3.48%, according to Census data. <\/p>\n

Ricky Castaneda, 27, is a member of the Freelizabeth<\/a> group that filed the petition. He said the difference between a $20 cap and a 3% limit is significant for working families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose extra hundred dollars mean a lot to a working-class family,\u201d said Ricky, who is an admissions recruiter at Essex County College. \u201cThat money could go toward medicine, food, or childcare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renee Steinhagen, the lawyer for the tenants, said if the judge does rule that the petition and the ordinance are invalid, the council could take a do-over vote to reinstate the $20 cap. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a city council passes an ordinance and doesn\u2019t follow procedure, they can cure it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can hold another hearing, give proper notice, and pass it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, Steinhagen said landlords could impose a 3% increase on leases that expire in the meantime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s frustrating is that even if we ultimately win, tenants could go a year without this protection,\u201d Steinhagen said. \u201cThe citizens didn\u2019t make a mistake here. The city made a procedural error, and it shouldn\u2019t be used against tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Council President Carlos Cede\u00f1o said he and fellow members will base their next move on how the case plays out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment is to act in the best interest of the entire community,\u201d Cede\u00f1o said. \u201cAnd to do so with a complete and informed understanding of the situation.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A battle in state court over rent control in Elizabeth ground on last week, when landlords argued against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-77989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}