Kavanagh-Duane tenant bill passed by Assembly

By Andrew Park

Tenants fighting to prove their primary residences may be able to pass off their attorneys’ fees and damages on to their landlord if a bill passed by the State Assembly last week clears a State Senate committee next.

The bill would require landlords to pay for tenants’ legal bills when they challenge primary residences in bad faith. The proposed legislation is aimed at cases when landlords assert in court that an apartment is not a tenant’s primary residence, explained Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, the bill’s sponsor along with State Senator Tom Duane.

In Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, waves of rent-stabilized tenants were hit with these challenges in nonrenewal or golub notices issued by owner Tisman Speyer. By August 2008, Tishman had reported 13 percent of rent-stabilized leases had been challenged though about half of those turned out to be illegal residences.

The landlord also maintained golub notices were not served up before careful analysis of the “publicly available facts.”

However, the notices were likened to a “fishing expedition” then by ST-PCV Tenants Association president Al Doyle and denounced for spreading fear by City Council member Dan Garodnick.

Much like cases seen in ST-PCV, Kavanagh said landlords citywide have increasingly brought court action against tenants to undermine rent-stabilization protections and even ignoring tenants’ proof of primary residency. The bill, he said would discourage this practice by offering a “strong disincentive” to landlords.

“We need to send a loud and clear message,” Kavanagh said. “Landlords can no longer exploit tenants by using bad faith court cases to harass them and create an atmosphere of fear.”

Kavanagh noted he was also collaborating with Duane to add further legislation, which would address false allegations other than primary residence challenges.

These frivolous non-primary residence challenges is a means to harass tenants, said Duane, who noted his office had been swamped by calls from tenants in recent months. “For those who are wrongly accused, this can be both costly and cruel,” he said.

The bill is now up for review by the Senate Housing, Construction, and Community Development Committee. The bill follows a package of rent reform legislation that was passed by the Assembly earlier this year and is awaiting floor action in the State Senate.

On Tuesday, May 12, Duane, along with fifteen other State Senators gathered with hundreds of tenants and housing advocates calling to pass rent reform before the legislative session ends in June.

In February, the Assembly passed a package of bills including the return of home rule back to the New York City Council to toughen rent laws, a repeal of vacancy decontrol and shutting eviction loopholes.

Source: Town & Village