If your landlord threatens to evict you for nonpayment, please see our Eviction section to know your rights and options. This means that if your landlord is harassing you while threatening eviction, you can point out that their chance of successfully evicting you becomes lower for each additional harassment incident you document. (P52 L12). (P46 L45). Mobile & Manufactured Homes | Homes and Community Renewal Landlords must provide notice in writing if they will not renew a lease or if they will raise your rent. The fight for universal rent control in New York - Curbed NY Include the following items: Doors, locks, windows, window screens, furnace, basement, carpets, curtains, window shades, entryway, yard, Refrigerator, stove, oven, sink, counters, cupboards and drawers, floor, walls, plumbing, Closet, floor, walls, ceiling, light fixtures, Sink, toilet, tub, shower, tiles, plumbing, floor, walls, fixtures and towel bars, cabinets, mirror. LEASES A lease is a contract between a landlord and a tenant, containing the Be sure to put your name, address, and date on the letter, and to keep a copy (email and text allow this to happen automatically). Meet with, leave letters for, or otherwise contact your neighbors to see if they are facing similar problems. Landlord Tenant Lawyer Serving New York (516) 568-0000 Garden City, NY Landlord Tenant Lawyer with 31 years of experience Mitchell is often described by his colleagues and peers as a "lawyer's lawyer" and their "go to" lawyer for enforcing judgments against debtors, especially in New York State. Your landlord will not be able to keep your security deposit to pay for damage that existed when you moved in. This is called paying in escrow. Meet with, leave letters for, or otherwise contact your neighbors to see if they are facing similar problems more often than not, a landlord will act abusively towards many tenants. The tenant shall have the opportunity to cure any such condition before the end of the tenancy. Many landlords will attempt to put restrictions on how many people can be in a unit and how long guests can stay. New York state anti-harassment laws make it illegal for landlords to engage in any action that is intended to force tenants to leave their homes or otherwise give up their rights under law. Withholding rent can be very effective but also presents risk of retaliation. Once a landlord finishes their inspection, showing, or repair, they must leave the unit. Thoughts: More administrative headache that is disconnected with the reality and challenges of handling deposit dispositions. As property managers in the Capital Region, we fully understand that there are abusive and exploitative Landlords out there, and agree they must be stopped and laws in place to protect tenants. Speaker of the Assembly Carl E. Heastie Dear Friend, New York State laws governing housing are complex, and tenants are often . Note: There were also a slew of regulations passed in this bill regarding mobile home parks, condo conversions, and NYC-specific items, but I'll not cover those in this article. Note that rent reductions cannot be granted if youre ruled to have caused the damage which usually isnt the case. When you pay the next month's rent, include a letter that says what work you did, why, and how much it cost - which is the amount you will deduct. Be Aware! You should carefully inspect the apartment. Refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services, if necessary, for the disabled person. 220-238A) states that tenants receive a set of rights, such as the right to a habitable unit. If the tenant requests such inspection, the parties shall execute a written agreement before the tenant begins occupancy of the unit attesting to the condition of the property and specifically noting any existing defects or damages. Landlords must not harass, punish, or penalize any tenant for exercising the right to organize. Despite being a federally administered program, there is little publicly available information on the specifics of our rights to guests & visitors under Section 8. New York Landlord Tenant Rights Last Updated: May 22, 2023 New York rental agreements can be either written or oral. This is where establishing patterns come in if you have a housing search story that feels unjust to you and you live in or near Ithaca, please contact ITUs Organizing Help Line so we can record it and look up other submissions to see if this has happened before. New law:No deposit or advance shall exceed the amount of one month's rent under such contract. Landlords are also prohibited from engaging in disruptive construction or renovation projects in your building that interfere with your health, safety, and use of your apartment. c) If the tenant has occupied the unit for more than two years or has a lease term of at least two years, the landlord shall provide at least ninety days' notice. Evicting a Tenant | NY CourtHelp - New York State Unified Court System Tenant Rights, Laws and Protections: New York - HUD.gov Section 8 heavily restricts low-income tenants rights to live with and be visited by our families and friends. A squatter can claim rights to the property after a certain time of residing there. I will be very interested to see how this particular clause is challenged in the courts. Despite the use of all those technologies, this clause may now require 2 additional trips to a property during a turn which will further drive up Landlord costs, which will almost surely be passed on to tenants in the form of steeper rent. For month-to-month leases, tenants must give one months notice to the landlord before they stop renewing the lease. Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.- LawNY - Geneva Office. When you move out, your landlord is automatically required to return your depositto your last known address. Your Rights as a Renter | Albany, NY - Albany, New York Home | United Tenants of Albany, Inc Once youve lived somewhere for 30 days, whether you have a lease or not, landlords cannot evict you without going to court multiple times and theyre legally required to give you specific paperwork before and after each time in order to proceed. If your landlord threatens OR tries to shut off (or not fix) your utilities or otherwise violate your Warranty of Habitability as an attempt to get you to move out, that is an illegal eviction attempt according to Real Property Law section 768. New York City residential hotel owners and tenants are governed by the rent stabilization law, enforced by the DHCR. (518) 526-9095 PO Box 11604. You might be required to eventually provide your landlord with a copy of a new key if you change your own locks, but you can demand that illegal entries and harassment stop before you do so, and simply change the locks back if they comply to your satisfaction. Please see this document from the NY Courts System for a full list of common Warranty of Habitability violations. If you live in or near Ithaca, contact the Tenants Legal Hotline to receive free legal help. Be sure to include all damages listed in the checklist in the written agreement after the inspection. If your landlord tries to evict you for non-payment of rent, you will be able to show the Court that you have been paying your rent into escrow. #1: Renters have the right to safe, livable, and sanitary homes. For buildings of four or more units built after this March 13, 1991, without an elevator, these standards only apply to ground floors. Anyone who has a disability (including, but not limited to: chronic mental illness or disability, hearing or visual impairments, mobility impairments, cancer, and HIV) that substantially limits one or more major life activities. LANDLORD & TENANT 255 ORANGE ST. SUITE 104ALBANY NY 12210RESPONSIBILITIES PHONE: (518)436-8997KNOW YOUR RIGHTS BASIC LANDLORD RESPONSIBILITIES Occupancy: No owner or other person may rent any dwelling unless it is clean, sanitary and fit for humanoccupancy. If any money has been deducted, you are owed an itemized list of these deductions within the same 14 days. These are outside the scope of tenant law, although you should still keep record of them for possible use in a future eviction case defense. In New York, it takes 10 years of continuous occupation for a squatter to make an adverse possession claim (NPA 501, et seq). Use the table below to see how much you can be charged if you are late on rent: Landlord has the right to enter the unit at any time, for anyreason., You are not allowed to bring any children into theunit., If you are suspected of criminal activity, your lease will be terminatedwithoutnotice., All housing complaints should be made to the landlord. Find out who you should contact for repairs. New York City, where the vast majority of the state's 1 million stabilized apartments are located, lost more than 284,000 stabilized units between 1994 and 2016, according to the Rent Guidelines . Albany County, NY Landlord Tenant Attorney with 37 years of experience. Thoughts: This is the big one that is justifiably causing Landlords and investors to rethink their investment in New York real estate altogether. View Lawyer Profile. When you come to Court you may settle the case, the tenant may not show up (default), or you may go to trial. Employment. It doesnt matter if the harassment tactics arent on the above list anything that disturbs your living can be used as a defense. Submit a Request SeeClickFix. The Petition is a document that outlines your landlord's reason for filing an eviction. The same rules do not apply if tenants decide not to renew tenants dont need to give any notice for yearly leases. Cleaning fees/deposits separate from the security deposit this is what security deposits are for. The signature and title of the person receiving the rent. According to Real Property Law L Section 235-F, landlords cannot restrict access to your unit for your immediate family, and any dependent children of yours. (P55 L55). Section 233 of the New York State Real Property Law ( RPL 233) governs tenants' rights in manufactured home parks. A rent demand is a written statement that rent must be paid by 14 days after the date the demand was given. Do New York tenants have a legal right to heat and hot water? New York Rent Laws: Know Your Rights According to Real Property Law L Section 227-E, your landlord is legally required to make documented good-faith attempts to re-rent your apartment at a fair market rate before a court will allow them to try to sue you for the money. If you can get a recording or written record of a landlord refusing to rent to tenants receiving Section 8, you have caught them committing a crime. Albany v. White, 261 N.Y.S.2d 361 (Civ. We investigate reports of discrimination, predatory home loans and mortgages, and deed theft. If you notice a problem with the apartment, tell the landlord as soon as possible, in writing. Your landlord cannot deduct from your security deposit for any reason related to disability-related modifications youve made or had them make to the apartment. (P48, L26). #4: Renters cannot be required to give up their rights when they sign a lease. You can sue another person without having a lawyer represent you. (P47 L56). Albany County, NY Landlord Tenant Lawyer with 14 years of experience. Ask when you can expect the work to be done legally, landlords have one week to respond to regular repairs, and in emergencies like broken heat or a burst pipe, they must respond as soon as possible. We can provide information, and show up for physical protection and de-escalation. Please contact us! If this happens, you will get a new court date. By making it more difficult to evict and to collect reasonable fees, Landlord's will be forced to heighten their application approval criteria to avoid taking on the risk of renting to lower-income tenants. Late fees cannot exceed $50 or 5% of the unpaid rent, whichever is less. Keep any evidence of this threat/harassment, which could include text messages, emails, letters, pictures, audio/video recordings (NY is a one party state, meaning that only one person in a conversation needs to know they are being recorded). In general, when you cant afford rent, we recommend contacting other tenants of the same landlord and letting them know that you may need their solidarity in the near future, as well as contacting your landlord to ask that they waive a months rent or establish a payment plan. Landlords are prohibited from interfering with tenants privacy, comfort, and quiet enjoyment of their homes. In Albany, tenants can only be evicted for certain reasons, known as "good causes." Most leases require the tenant to grant access to the unit for certain legitimate purposes. All Rights Reserved. Under the new law, regardless of the time and expense incurred by the landlord throughout the eviction process and the length of time the eviction has been drawn out, if a tenant provides payment in full of rent proceeds at any time during the eviction process, the eviction is thrown out and the landlord's expenses throughout the eviction are irrecoverable. Blockaders must do whatever you are comfortable with as a tenant, no more or less. "Warranty" means promise. What it means: The officer delivering a warrant during an eviction proceeding must now provide a 14-day notice to the tenant, which has been increased from 72 hours. According to Katurah Corp v. Wells, you can legally pay for a repair or working appliance, and then deduct the cost from later rent payment(s).