There are two types in New York: rent stabilisation, which covers the most homes, and rent control.
    Apartments can be deregulated under rent stabilisation if they are vacated at a monthly rent of $2,500 (£1,600) or if they reach that rate and the occupant's income reaches $200,000V-Shape瘦面.
    A percentage of money spent by landlords on improvements can be added to the rent permanently. A vacancy means a landlord may increase rent by as much as 20%.
    Rent increases are set by the Rent Guidelines Board. One-year leases were raised 1% last year. A rise of 3-4% has been typical previously.
    Landlords may charge a lower rent than they are entitled to in order to attract tenants, but this can be raised on renewal of a lease.
    Rent stabilised tenants have the right to renew their leases for one or two years.
    Some landlords would like to see protections afforded only to those who need it.
    Some tenants want to see the rules tightened to keep more homes regulated.

Ms Fink, who worked as a journalist for womens' magazines and in public relations, retired in 1985, "when $40,000 a year was good money," she says. Rent currently accounts for about a third of her income. "If we didn't have rent stabilisation I don't like to think what I would do."

Ms Fink lives in the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village complex, Manhattan's largest apartment development, built after World War Two to help house people returning from the conflict.
$4,100 fridge

One of her complaints, shared by other residents, is how rent increases are structured and how apartments in New York can be deregulated.

Landlords can only increase rent more than the rate set by authorities under strict circumstances, such as when an occupant moves out or if improvements are made to the apartment.