In their summary of the new rent laws, “Noteworthy Changes Enacted by the Rent Act of 2015,” (NYLJ, July 1), Warren Estis and Jeffrey Turkel missed what is probably one of the most significant changes to rent stabilization almost 20-years. The new law provides that a rent stabilized apartment cannot be deregulated unless the prior tenant's legal regulated rent is $2,700.

The existing law, at least until the recent Appellate Division, First Department Altman decision, which may be appealed, permitted landlords to increase the rent to the deregulation threshold ($2,000 until June 24, 2011, and $2,500 after that date) when an apartment became vacant.

Landlords did this through a combination of vacancy increases and apartment improvements. That approach has resulted in the loss of thousands of rent stabilized apartments and created an incentive for landlords to force tenants whose rents were below $2,000/$2,500 out of their apartments so that they could be deregulated.