City Landlords Can Now Be Sued for Harassment

Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg signed off on the city’s first law enabling tenants to sue landlords in Housing Court for systemic harassment. Previously, tenants had to take landlords to court for each and every violation, such as failure to provide hot water or letting so much water leak that floors collapse. The so-called Tenant Protection Act is primarily aimed at landlords who are trying to force tenants out of rent-regulated apartments in order to bump the rent up to obscene market rates.

The new law was cheered by tenants at a rally outside City Hall yesterday; one of them told the Times that when she complained about problems with bed bugs, “her landlord told her to put the insects in a tortilla and eat them.” Though the civil penalties for harassment seem a little low – fines range from $1,000 to $5,000 – the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 city property owners and managers, lobbied hard against the law. A representative for the group insisted to the Times that tenant harassment was not widespread and that the bill would glut the Housing Court with frivolous lawsuits.

Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn (pictured at yesterday's rally), who co-sponsored the bill, has promised to provide more resources to the court as needed. And regarding the frivolous lawsuit concerns, Louise Seeley, executive director of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, notes that 98 percent of housing court cases are filed by landlords. Testifying at a committee hearing, she pointed out that “emptying long-standing tenants from buildings is a business plan. Tenants do not have the time and money to spend the day in housing court [over frivolous cases].” And the new law allows landlords to be compensated for their attorney’s fees when cases are deemed frivolous.

Photo: Bill Alatriste.

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By John Del Signore in News on March 14, 2008 10:53 AM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

So I should give up the apartment I've lived in my entire life and move to some overpriced shoebox in a crappy neighborhood because I went to school and became a well-paid professional?

But what have you done to earn the apartment? Eating at McDonald's all your life doesn't mean you pay the same price since childhood.

solidago

So I should give up the apartment I've lived in my entire life and move to some overpriced shoebox in a crappy neighborhood because I went to school and became a well-paid professional?

Umm, no... you should just pay the market rent like most of us, and not insist that we subsidize your lifestyle. Many of us would like to subsidize someone who actually deserves it and needs it. The system is perverse and you have your entitled, white-collared welfare-queen head up your ass if you try to defend the lack of a means test with a straight face. You're a lucky, undeserving bastard - just smirk and enjoy your good fortune while you still can.

holyfrijole

I live in a rent controlled apartment where I've lived since I was born and inherited upon the death of my parents. I make a very good living. So I should give up the apartment I've lived in my entire life and move to some overpriced shoebox in a crappy neighborhood because I went to school and became a well-paid professional?

There are so few rent controlled apartments left that they have little, if any, impact on the housing market in NYC. Landlords regularly harass rent controlled and stablized tenants because they're greedy bastards who want to jack the rent up for the next wave of doe-eyed wannabe hipsters moving here when they graduate from college.

Don't blame me if you moved to NYC from the midwest and are willing to pay $1500 for a one bedroom in Cobble Hill -- that's your own damn fault, not mine for being a native NYer with a rent controlled apartment.

JacqueMehoff

more great news, this and Patterson as the Gov.

perhaps housing will be back on the front burner.

sinisterteashop

Sorry, that should read read "sue their landlords" not "sue the city"

sinisterteashop

Quinn needs to work a lot harder before she gets the job of Mayor handed to her. She could stop blocking the rest of City Council from examining the cable franchise deals going on in Bloomberg's office. She could repeal the restrictions on freedom of assembly that she gave away to the NYPD. She could work with the HIV advocacy community of the city instead of working against them.

Quinn's support of the new Housing Court law is politically well timed since the state Supreme Court ruled in July that tenants could avoid Housing Court to use the Supreme Court because the Housing Court "sells its eviction data to 'tenant-screening bureaus' that, in turn, sell the information to landlords around the country" and effectively blacklist tenants who sue the city in Housing Court. The state Supreme Court law was going to fill up the courts with tenant cases.

Thank you, Christine for knocking them all back down into the city's Housing Court.

cgee

Louise Seeley, executive director of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, notes that 98 percent of housing court cases are filed by landlords

Hey moron, perhaps that is because the vast majority of housing court petition filings are for nonpayment of rent. Who the fuck else, other than the landlord, would be filing such a claim? Does this person actually work anywhere near a housing part?

contortionist

either way, rent stabilized apt. tenants are still going to be screwed by their landlords, if people can barely afford rent how are they going to afford legal fee's? I just stick to finding no fee rentals, do your self a favor and check out www.urbansherpany.com if your looking to save.

HughGass

her landlord told her to put the insects in a tortilla and eat them

C'mon ... that's funny.

interlard

This is wonderful news and has made my day. I haven't been harassed, but I have experienced lazy, possibly unscrupulous, landlords trying to keep 100s of my dollars for "damage" that didn't exist.

It's crazy that the RSA lobbied against this law. What tenant has time to make this crap up? The landlords have our money and the power to screw with us and our homes.

Thank you, Christine Quinn!

itsbananas

Wow...you mean the city government saw that tenants were being harassed? And then they passed a law to fix the situation???? I can't believe it!

solidago

eyekantspel - Perhaps the market rates wouldn't be quite so obscene if the city would have a means test for rent controlled tenants. Those that don't make the cut (which would be what, $100k?), could move out to Bay Ridge and other uncool far-flung neighborhoods, where the rent's cheap and the apartments are spacious.

bxGagger

does this apply to non-rent-controlled apts?

eyekantspel

to bump the rent up to obscene market rates

that kind of says it all.

solidago

And the new law allows landlords to be compensated for their attorney’s fees when cases are deemed frivolous.

That almost sounds too good to be true. My guess is that the rent-control crowd, with their obscene sense of entitlement, is organizing a protest against this provision right now. Surely there are a few tort lawyers making a healthy six figures while living in rent-controlled apartments who would be willing to give up a golf game or two to fight this. After all, isn't bringing frivolous lawsuits with impunity an unalienable American right?