Discrimination lawsuits are coming if your teams are not trained to comply with the new NYC commercial tenant harassment laws.
On 9/25/19, the New York City Council increased commercial tenant harassment fines to a minimum of $10,000 a maximum of $50,000—a ten fold increase from the previous fines that ranged from $1,000 to $10,000.
The bill passed by the Council also expands on the definition of "tenant harassment" to include:
- Requesting identifying documents that would disclose the citizen status of a tenant;
- Threatening a tenant based on factors including age, race, gender, disability status, or sexual orientation; and
- Unreasonably refusing to cooperate with a tenant's permitted repairs or construction activities.
Landlords, before taking action in tenant disputes, you should have your teams trained on the different forms of discrimination and harassment to avoid hefty fines.
