State Specific INFO About: NEW YORK (NY) Apologize LONG

I recently went incognito (ala Undercover Boss) to a Tenants Rights seminar hosted by a well-known legal aid agency. Here are some of my findings which you may already be aware of:

You now are required as of 8/18/24 to fill out and give a copy of a form known as: Notice to Tenant Applicability or Inapplicability of the NYS GCE Law when offering a new lease, renewing an existing lease, or notifying a tenant that their lease will not be renewed, whether or not GCE applies in your area. I have attached a PDF of this form. The form is 9-11 pages long depending on the format. Here is the link to this NYS Legislation:

(source: NYS Open Legislation | NYSenate.gov)

Good Cause

Is now active in the following cities as of this writing 10/25/24:

Albany, Beacon, Hudson, Kingston, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Ithaca, Town of New Paltz, Village of Nyack as well as the entire downstate region, not including Long Island.

It was noted that local municipalities have a lot of license to change the definition of what constitutes a “large property owner.” In the case of Ithaca, it is anyone owning more than 3 units/doors.

The speaker urged the tenants in attendance to contact their local representatives and “demand” that GCE be adopted in their municipality.

Eviction “Hints”

It was emphasized that if a tenant goes to the first appearance of their eviction, they should ask for an adjournment of 14 days which must be granted.

The general eviction process was discussed as dictated by the 2019 HSTPA and if every “i” is not dotted and “t” is not crossed it can all be thrown out and the landlord has to start all over again. Also if any rent is accepted, this nullifies the eviction.

Mobile Home Parks are under their own special provisions. A 30 day notice can be given to a tenant who OWNS their own mobile home whereas someone who RENTS their mobile home can be given the old standard THREE day notice. Again, tenants were encouraged to contact their legislators to make these rules more “tenant friendly” via NYS real estate law.

Holdover rent cannot be more than the standard daily prorated rent as is in the contract. You will not be able to collect 2x or 3x the daily amount for holdovers (no disincentive to continue squatting in the unit)

Tenant Activism

As suspected, this agency and ALL OTHER LEGAL AID AGENCIES are coalescing to form a Housing Task Force to lobby to make NYS law even MORE tenant friendly. The speaker described NYS as having a “moderate” amount of tenant protections as compared to other areas such as LA county in CA, etc. But what NYS has currently is a “good start” (code for cascading legislation and diminishing property rights). Tenant unions were highly encouraged.

Housing Conditions

Of course, housing providers were depicted as disrespectful, profit driven and “bossy” over their tenants. Housing habitability complaints mentioned were the nebulous “mold in/on the walls” (the majority of which is mildew) and “dead rodents in the walls.” The speaker was incredulous that the property owner wouldn’t tear down the drywall, remove any dead rodents and re-drywall the unit with the tenant still in place or possibly housing the tenant in a hotel (at property owner’s expense).

Non Payment of Rent

It was noted that withheld rent by the tenant should be held in escrow but the speaker stated that “life is expensive” and had no problems if the tenant spent the rent money on fixing their car or some other “family emergency” instead of escrowing it. So that law is not enforced.

If it is determined that the landlord did not do certain repairs in the unit, that the tenant could pay any amount of rent they felt was “worth” the rental unit at the time of “disrepair” and any eviction of said tenant for non payment would stop.

As of December 2023, Governor Hochul signed into law the “Tenant Dignity and Safe Housing Act” which has been referred to as a “reverse eviction” whereby tenants can sue the housing provider for damages and get reduced rents ordered by a judge due to “poor housing conditions.” This was cited as a better alternative for tenants rather than withholding rent. The tenant need only get a copy of a code violation at the unit. County clerks can provide assistance in filling out these court papers to sue their landlords (funny, I see signs all over local clerk's offices stating they provide no legal advice to anyone else). The damages that can be awarded are as follows:

-Issuing an order directing the landlord to conduct repairs in the home based on the standards of New York’s property code.

-Awarding a monetary judgment to the tenant for the diminished value of the property based on the code violations presented.

-Ordering a reduction in rent based on the diminished value until the code violations have been addressed.

(source: centralcurrent.org/new-law-lets-upstate-new-york-renters-to-sue-to-correct-housing-codes-violations/)

Having any eviction is failure of both the tenant and the management. It really appears that your laws are trying to drive home the point that these failures are shared between both parties.

In most disagreements, communication goes a long-long way.

As there are so many watch groups out their looking out for tenants, there is an equal number of watch groups teaching ways to look for property managers. If you are fearful things are drifting one way or another (And they do routinely), I believe attending the way you want it to lean towards would be the training I would attend.

It must have been eye opening attending the other side of the fence. I am not all that certain if I could keep my mouth shut.