LIEB BLOG

Legal Analysts

Showing posts with label leases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leases. Show all posts

Monday, December 13, 2021

The Beginning of the End for Paper Copy Lease Agreements

It is the beginning of the end of paper copy lease agreements in NYS, at least for rent stabilized tenants. 


Moving forward, rent stabilized tenants are going to be processing their leases electronically because Bill A02679 passed the legislature and is pending Gov. Hochul's signature. This Bill requires that the Division of Housing and Community Renewal ("DHCR") develops regulations allowing electronic leases and signatures to be used for both leases and lease renewals of rent stabilized tenants. 


However, the Bill makes clear that electronic leases are not yet required. As such, those who may not be well-versed in technology, such as the Baby Boomer generation, need not worry about how this could affect their lease execution process as tenants will be able to choose whether or not they want to execute their lease via electronic means or via a traditional paper copy. A tenant will be presented with a form, developed by DHCR, in the top 6 languages that will confirm that the tenant has the choice whether to consent to the use of electronic records and signatures. Therefore, landlords will not be permitted to require their tenants to execute their lease by electronic means.


It is expected that electronic leases are going to become the norm sooner rather than later. They cut down on costs of office supplies, such as printer ink and paper, while provide for improved organization and retrieval. They save time by avoiding face-to-face meetings and can maximize safety in this COVID world. 


Do you think most rent stabilized tenants will choose to have their leases executed electronically? Or, will paper copies stand the test of time in a constantly evolving technology driven world? Seems unlikely. It's my guess that as the Boomer generation dissipates, paper copy leases will as well. 




Thursday, July 22, 2021

The Neverending Assault on Landlord's $ Continues with New Bill on Governor's Desk

Landlords are about to be capped on key reproduction fees in NYS. 


You may be saying whoopdeedoo, but it's not that simple. 


The cap is 110% of the actual cost of reproduction. However, the cap doesn't apply for the 4th time the tenant needs the keys in a calendar year. 


The real question is what happened the second and third time the tenant needed a new key. Why are they constantly losing their keys? Do you lose your house keys FOUR times in a year? 


Here is a question - does this new key reproduction cap also cap the shipping and handling of the new keys? Think about it. Now a landlord needs to stop their day, drive to a local hardware shop, wait about 20 minutes for the line and the key to be made, drive back to their office, and deliver the key for virtually fifty cents. This is nuts. 


Maybe the legislature should realize that landlords never wanted to make money on key reproduction in the first place. Instead, they charged a lot to motivate their tenants to STOP LOSING KEYS. 


Read the new law, section 235-i of the Real Property Law, here


Governor Cuomo should not to sign this stupid law. 


If he does, lawyers need to draft leases with shipping and handling fees for keys, but it's unclear if such fees will be upheld in court when the litigation ensues on the topic. 


Do you think landlords should be able to charge fees for shipping and handling of key reproduction?






Wednesday, March 03, 2021

The Pitfalls of a Guaranty on your Next Commercial Lease

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Podcast | Tips For Landlords To Renegotiate Lease Terms

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Podcast | Creative Lease Workout Options

Latest Podcast - Sharing creative lease solutions for commercial landlords and tenants who have lost revenue from coronavirus.

Click here to listen to podcast


Friday, March 06, 2020

Residential House Flipping and Month-to-Month Leases

Tune in Sunday 3/8/20 at noon on LI News Radio 103.9 FM where Real Estate Investing Coach Andrew Lieb discusses what to look out for when flipping residential real estate. Learn the true costs of real estate transactional fees and policies that mortgage lenders have against issuing loans when the contract of sale dates are too close in time. Andrew Lieb also goes over what you need to know about evicting tenants that have month-to-month leases.

After the show airs - the Podcast will be available here. 



Monday, January 27, 2020

RE Brokers Paying Lawyers is a No-No

For a long time, real estate brokers on Long Island drafted leases for their clients, the landlords. As time passed, these brokers became educated about the illegality of this act and decided to stop committing a felony or being subject to having their license revoked. However, real estate brokers often couldn’t help themselves. They needed to connive another scheme to have the leases drafted for them, rather than simply referring their clients to attorneys as the law required. So, many real estate brokers have found unethical attorneys to draft their leases while the brokers pay such attorneys directly while controlling the representation. Simply, these attorneys are answerable to the broker, not the client.

This article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in The Suffolk Lawyer discusses how the unethical attorneys should be checking their mailbox for a letter from grievance.



Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Hamptons Real Estate Law: Never Overlook the Lease

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

ALERT - Throw Out Your Old Form Leases Immediately

Residential leases are now required to contain a notice to tenant(s) concerning the existence of sprinkler systems.

“Sprinkler system” shall mean a system of piping and appurtenances designed and installed in accordance with generally accepted standards so that heat from a fire will automatically cause water to be discharged over the fire area to extinguish it or prevent its further spread.
See Executive Law 155-a.

Read the new law at Real Property Law 231-a.

The law specifically requires:

  • Notice in bold face type;
  • Notice that a maintained and operative sprinkler system in the leased premises is in - EXISTENCE OR NON-EXISTENCE; &
  • The last date of maintenance and inspection of any EXISTING sprinkler system.
The Bill's Justification states that "According to the Fire Sprinkler Initiative, the availability of smoke detectors, coupled with a maintained and operative sprinkler system installed in a residence, decreases the risk of dying in a fire by over 80%."

As a person that is into living, that statistic is jaw-dropping in support of the existence of sprinklers in residential housing. At the least, this new law provides tenants with the knowledge to make an informed choice as to whether to live in a premises without a sprinkler system. 

Real estate professionals should now immediately throw out any of their old leases and make sure to have a new residential lease prepared that complies with Real Property Law 231-a. Also, cooperative boards must not forget that they are leasing property as well. So, cooperatives that amend their proprietary leases must comply with RPL 231-a or risk the lease being held void. 

Monday, October 20, 2014

Lease Guaranties & Modifications - Be Sure to Draft Modifications Carefully

The Appellate Division recently addressed a situation where a guaranty accompanying the original lease was enforced post-modification of that underlying lease in 4 USS LLC v. DSW MS LLC where the court ruled that the Guarantee could "recover under the terms of the lease, prior to its modification".

This means that where you make a deal to modify the terms of your lease, you may still be personally liable under the old guaranty for past breaches of that previous lease.

The takeaway from this case is to address the guaranty documents in the modification documents and expressly state the intentions of the parties as to past breaches and their enforceability post-modification.

Real estate agents often only think about getting the functional results that their clients expressly state accomplished - this case is a reminder of the necessity to clean up the past before emerging into the goals stated by your clients for the future.

Otherwise, the past can come back to bite you.