Law Alert - NYC Passes Commercial Landlord Discrimination Law with HUGE Fines

NYC COMMERCIAL LANDLORDS BEWARE! 

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. 

This expands on the prior prohibitions of denying utility services, removing tenant property, limiting a tenant's access to space, or repeatedly engaging in frivolous lawsuits against tenants. 

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.

Law Alert: LLC Owners ID Must be Disclosed in Real Estate Deals

ATTENTION LLC Owners

LLC sellers & buyers of residential property (1-4 family houses) will no longer be able to hide their identities.

Transfer tax returns submitted by LLCs, as required when transferring real estate, will no longer be accepted by the clerk's office unless submitted with the names and addresses of all members, managers, shareholders, directors, officers, partners, and other authorized agents.

Check out the full bill here and understand that you can no longer hide your identity in a residential real estate deal in the State of New York.

New Law Protects Domestic Violence Victims From Eviction

Governor Cuomo signed Assembly Bill A2665A, which prevents landlords from evicting tenants facing domestic violence or other crimes as a result of a nuisance violation. Landlords may now begin eviction proceedings against perpetrators of violence while the victim of domestic violence remains at his/her residence. 

The stated purpose of the law: 

“[n]o victim of domestic violence, or other person threatened with violence or in jeopardy of harm, should fail to access police or emergency assistance when needed because of the fear that doing so may result in losing their housing through eviction or other actions to remove them from the property.” 

Prior to the new law, landlords could evict victims of domestic violence for creating a "nuisance."

Now, victims can no longer be penalized for violating laws regulating nuisances unless the conduct is rooted in breaches of the lease, illicit activities, or other violations of the law. In short, multiple calls to the police for help no longer serve as grounds to evict a tenant.

Closed Captioning On TVs In Public Accommodations Must Now Be Provided Upon Request

Televisions in an area of public accommodation that have a closed captioning feature must be enabled upon request. However, business owners will not be penalized if the television does not have a closed captioning feature.

The specific law S1650 signed by Governor Cuomo states:

“A place of public accommodation, resort or amusement. . . shall upon request be required to have closed captioning enabled on all televisions that are located in the public area . . . during regular business hours.”

Owners/Managers of public accommodations should train staff on this new requirement to avoid potential exposure to costly lawsuits.

Eye on Real Estate - 9/7/19

If you missed Eye on Real Estate this weekend you can listen to the Podcast. Topics include - how to evaluate your insurance coverage and questions to ask to make sure your assets are protected in the event of a storm, understanding what happens when you list property without a broker and more general real estate tips.

Listen Here to the Podcast

Deadline = 1 Month: Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

Attention all employers / HR managers - you have 1 month left to complete your sexual harassment prevention training of all employees as required by Labor Law 201-g.

Failure to train = misdemeanor and exposure to lots of fines by the DOL.

Get your employees trained at sexualharassmenttrainingny.com