1982 Loft Law

1982 Loft Law
New York State Legislature
Long title Article 7-C of the New York Multiple Dwelling Law
Territorial extent	Any city in New York State with at least 1 million residents. Effectively limited to New York City.
Enacted by	New York State Legislature
Enacted	1982
Amended by
2009 Loft Law Amendment 2013 Loft Law Amendment
Status: In force

Article 7-C of the New York Multiple Dwelling Law, commonly known as the 1982 Loft Law, was designed to protect the residential tenants of certain former commercial buildings in New York City from substandard conditions, eviction, and unfair rent increases. The law affected buildings it defined as Interim Multiple Dwellings (IMDs), commercial or manufacturing loft buildings that had at least three units occupied by residents during the period of April 1, 1980, through December 1, 1981. It required landlords to bring converted residences up to code, and prevented them from charging tenants for improvements until the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy. The law was administered by the New York City Loft Board.

The 1982 Loft Law should not be confused with the artists' loft law, Article 7-b of the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law nor with rent control legislation, which limits the ability of landlords to increase the rent of certain long-term tenants. The artists' loft law requires that the tenant be certified by either the New York State Council on the Arts or the city's department of Cultural Affairs. While this law applied to any city of at least one million in New York State, only New York City has such population.

See also

• Rent control in New York
• 2009 Loft Law Amendment

External links

• Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants Archived 1998-12-06 at the Wayback Machine, an advocacy group
• New York City Loft Board
• tenant.net homepage, an exhaustive resource for NYC housing law and tenants rights