Landlord's Fishing Licenses Revoked: Legislation Will Provide Restitution to Harassed Tenants

State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Council member Dan Garodnick, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney and other officials today announced legislation they will be introducing requiring landlords to pay attorney’s fees and/or expenses incurred by tenants wrongly accused of breaking rent-stabilization regulations.  In cases where a landlord if found to have knowingly served a notice containing facts or allegations that are not true, the landlord shall be liable for three times the tenant’s legal fees.

This proposed legislation is a broader version of legislation passed by the State Assembly this Spring.  In this new bill if landlords bring frivolous actions against tenants they can be required to pay treble damages of the lawyer’s fees incurred by the tenant.  The bill is designed to stop landlords from going on fishing expeditions.  They cast out a net and accuse everybody they can of some violation of the rental laws and then see who they catch.  This is a considerable burden everybody but especially upon older people and people who are not familiar with the legal system or may not be native English speakers. 

Here are examples of some of the tactics that have been employed by landlords to falsely accuse legitimate tenants: 1. Accusing a child of being a sub-letter; 2. Wrongly accusing tenants of living elsewhere based on records of someone with a similar name.

It could be any frivolous accusation such as that the tenant has an illegal pet or cluttered conditions.  In short, any sort of violations of the terms of the lease. Often the landlord continues to accuse the tenant repeatedly even after the tenant has provided documentation of his or her legal status.  Recently, at Stuy Town and Peter Cooper, the landlord, Tishman Speyer, was found by the courts to have made false claims in 339 cases, according to Congressmember Carolyn Maloney.

Today’s press conference was held near the Stuy Town Peter Cooper Apartments because of the large number of abuses that have occurred there.  However, this represents only a small portion of the abuses that are occurring city wide.  This legislation will give all tenants an important weapon.  And if the Chelsea Hotel management engages in such wrongful lawsuits it can used as a weapon against them as well. -- Ed Hamilton