NY Landlords Now Barred From Suddenly Booting Tenants

NEW YORK — New York City landlords can no longer boot tenants without warning thanks to a state law that took effect Saturday.

The measure requires landlords across the state to give tenants at least a month's notice when they decline to renew their leases or decide to impose big rent hikes.

The law expands a basic protection that many tenants have had for years to help ensure that New Yorkers aren't made homeless by their landlords' whims, according to Legal Aid Society lawyer Ellen Davidson.

"All it does is allow people to make plans so that at the end of their lease term they can move into a new home as opposed to being left on the streets and trying to figure out where to go," said Davidson, a staff attorney with Legal Aid's Civil Law Reform Unit.

The new law is part of a landmark package of reforms to New York's housing laws that the state Legislature passed in June. It's a sort of consolation prize for tenant advocates who wanted a so-called good cause eviction law, which would guarantee tenants could renew their leases unless landlords have a valid reason to evict them.

The legislation requires landlords of unregulated apartments — those that are not rent-stabilized or rent-controlled — to give tenants advance notice when they decline to renew the current lease and when they plan to increase the rent 5 percent or more.

Tenants with one-year leases who have been in their homes less than a year are entitled to 30 days' notice. Those in their homes for one to two years get at least 60 days, while those who have lived in an apartment for more than two years get at least 90 days.

While there's no financial penalty for failing to follow the law, landlords won't be able to bring a successful eviction proceeding against a tenant in housing court without proving that they gave the proper notice, Davidson said.

The law will affect residents of roughly 1 million unregulated apartments in the five boroughs. Stronger protections are already in place for tenants of nearly 1 million more rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments in the city, according to Davidson.

Some landlords decide not to renew the leases of tenants who play by the rules but complain about repairs, Davidson said. She recounted the story of a disabled, elderly Rochester woman who testified to state lawmakers that she was allegedly evicted for making such a complaint.

"My understanding was that the Legislature was moved with a lot of stories like these and was looking for giving people greater opportunities to locate new homes if they couldn’t stay where they were," Davidson said.

The notice requirements are part of a major tenant-friendly overhaul of the state's rent laws approved after an aggressive push by tenant advocates. The changes curtail landlords' ability to impose large rent hikes, strengthen protections against evictions and allow new municipalities to opt in to rent regulations.

Landlord and developer groups such as the Real Estate Board of New York have cried foul over the new laws, saying that they will discourage capital investment and cause the city's housing stock to crumble.

REBNY could not be immediately reached for comment Monday about the notice law. But the group argued this summer that the package of reforms would hurt property owners and tenants alike.

"There was a path to responsible reform that could have protected tenants as well as owners, jobs and revenue, but Albany chose not to take it," then-REBNY President John Banks wrote in a June 18 column. (James Whelan has since replaced Banks as REBNY's leader.)