Source of Income Discrimination now banned in all of New York State

Source of income discrimination is now prohibited in all of New York State as a result of Governor Cuomo’s signing of the New York State FY 2020 Budget. The Budget amends the New York State Human Rights Law or Section 292 of the Executive Law to add and define “lawful source of income” as a protected class.

The term “lawful source of income” shall include, but not be limited to, “child support, alimony, foster care subsidies, income derived from social security, or any form of federal, state, or local public assistance or housing assistance including, but not limited to, section 8 vouchers, or any other form of housing assistance payment or credit whether or not such income or credit is paid or attributed directly to a landlord, and any other forms of lawful income.” Exec. Law §292(36).

Prior to Governor Cuomo’s signing of the Budget, source of income discrimination was already prohibited in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties, among others. It is important to note that as a result of the new law, the cooperative and condominium exemptions in Westchester County are no longer applicable.

Lease Suggestion to Avoid Discrimination

According to the NYC Commission on Human Rights Legal Enforcement Guidance on Discrimination on the Basis of Disability, "a “no pets” policy in a lease, should be clear about the availability of and the process for seeking and granting an exception or modification to the policy as a reasonable accommodation."

As should be discerned, using a form lease is very dangerous and landlords need to understand that a properly drafted tailored lease is about exposure mitigation more than anything else.

The End of Yellowstone Injunctions

The Appellate Division, Second Department, ruled on an issue of first impression in 159 MP Corp. v. Redbridge Bedford, LLC, that commercial tenants may waive declaratory judgment remedies in their written lease agreements and as such, landlords can now avoid Yellowstone injunctions through carefully crafting their lease agreements. All landlord’s counsel should include a provision in their leases mirroring the operative lease language. It would be wise for landlord’s counsel to expressly set forth broad consideration for the waiver of declaratory relief so that it is not subject to unconscionability analysis. 

Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in The Suffolk Lawyer here. 

Top 10 Silent Lease Rights for Tenants

Just because it’s silent doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Did you know that the state of New York provides residential tenants with many rights that supersede even the most grueling landlord-favorable lease terms? 

Andrew Lieb, Esq. shares the top ten tenants' rights that should be fully understood by landlords, tenants and real estate brokers who engage in the rental market on Dan's Papers. 

Click here for the full article. 

Tenants’ Rights: Subletting and Assigning

Question:

Can a landlord prevent a tenant from subletting or assigning their lease?

Answer:

Andrew Lieb, Esq. shares this answer in The Huffington Post. 

Click here to read the full article. 

Enforcing a Commercial Lease Against a Guarantor

Landlords cannot sue a guarantor in a Summary Proceeding because there is “no relationship of landlord and tenant … [where guarantor] was not a primary or joint obligor but assumed a secondary liability which accrued only upon default by the principal.” See Marburt Holding Corp. v. Picto Corp.,(1st Dept., 1958). Therefore, to enforce a guarantee, a landlord must pursue a Plenary Action against the guarantor following the conclusion of the Summary Proceeding. Nonetheless, landlords need not fret about the difficulty and cost incident to instituting a Plenary Action against a guarantor because landlords can proceed pursuant to CPLR §3213 and utilize the Doctrine of Collateral Estoppel in order to avoid the protracted litigation that is typical of a Plenary Action.


Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in The Suffolk Lawyer here. 

Reasons to Involve an Attorney in the Rental of an Accessory Apartment

There is a strong temptation for homeowners to rent out the extra space in their home for a few quick bucks on the side, but long gone are the days where being a part time landlord was as easy as posting a classified ad in the newspaper and watching the monthly rent checks roll in. 

With the continuing evolution and advancement of tenant protection laws, it is critical that a landlord runs the rental of their accessory apartment in the same way that they would run a business. One of the biggest differences between a professional and someone who dabbles in a field is the thorough understanding and appreciation of the risks their business faces. 

This article focuses on a few key developments in landlord-tenant law that all mom-and-pop landlords should be conscious of in order to avoid turning their part-time supplemental income into a big time hole in their pocket.

Read the full article published in The Suffolk Lawyer by Dennis Valet, Esq. here.

Five Discrimination Issues in Residential Real Estate Leasing

Landlords have an incredible number of issues to deal with, not the least of which is considering to whom they will open their doors as tenants. Landlords and their agents are restricted by civil rights laws from privately discriminating against prospective and current tenants. In fact, the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case of Reitman v. Mulkey expressly found that a private right to discriminate was unconstitutional. Yet, what does it mean for a landlord to discriminate? Here are the five ways a landlord can get sued under discrimination laws.

Read the full article written by Andrew Lieb, Esq. here. 

Top 5 Real Estate Lawsuits Aspiring Landlords Need to Know

There are so many get-rich-quick schemes for investing hard-earned savings in real estate to generate a huge passive income through rentals. Wake up--nothing in life is always roses, and not everyone can be Kiyosaki's Rich Dad. This is the list of the Top 5 litigation issues that income-producing property owners face incident to living the landlord's dream.

Full article in The Huffington Post, written by Andrew Lieb, Esq. here. 

Tenants of Properties in Foreclosure May Be in Trouble in 2015

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), tenants comprise 40% of the families facing foreclosure.  In the past, many tenants did not know their homes were in foreclosure until they were forced to move out with little to no notice after the foreclosure sale date. Landlords had incentive to keep the foreclosure a secret from their tenants so that they could collect rent in the meantime. As a result, tenants had little recourse and were among the families hurt most by foreclosure.

In 2009, the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act was enacted in order to protect tenants of properties in foreclosure from being evicted from their homes without due notice. Under this Act, a tenant had the right to stay in the property until the end of his or her lease unless the new owner intended to live in the property. If the property were to be owner-occupied, a 90-day notice was required before the tenant could be evicted. Month-to-month tenants also required 90 days’ notice. No longer were tenants forced to move out within a few days of being given an eviction notice.

The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act was set to expire on December 31, 2012 but Section 1484 of the Dodd-Frank Act extended it to December 31, 2014. Two bills, S.1761 and H.R. 3543, were introduced in 2013 to permanently extend the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act. However, neither bill has been passed, and it is unlikely that they will be passed in the next 2 days. It is possible, however, that the bills can be enacted retroactively in 2015.

Without this Act, tenants will not have the same heightened protections during the foreclosure process. It is imperative that a bill is passed to ensure that tenants are given due notice after a foreclosure sale date.