Gothamist: City Landlords Can Now Be Sued for Harassment

ANGRYGOD11

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:56:11 -0500

solidago

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:31:12 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:38:03 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:15:39 -0500

more great news, this and Patterson as the Gov. perhaps housing will be back on the front burner.

sinisterteashop

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:56:54 -0500

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

sinisterteashop

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:55:38 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:47:08 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:46:39 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:36:39 -0500

her landlord told her to put the insects in a tortilla and eat them C'mon ... that's funny.

interlard

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:13:44 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:57:35 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:43:02 -0500

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

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:31:09 -0500

does this apply to non-rent-controlled apts?

eyekantspel

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:30:05 -0500

to bump the rent up to obscene market rates that kind of says it all.

solidago

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:27:07 -0500

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?

thenamesdave

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:16:57 -0500

Quinn for mayor.