Advocates for the rights of landlords to fight for the eviction of nightmare tenants have a warning for anyone in New York State that leases or rents apartments:
Beware of the so-called “Good Cause Eviction” bill that sits in the New York State Senate Judiciary Committee and could be passed this year.
“Put a Pause on ‘Good Cause’” was the focus of a panel discussion hosted by Lisa Domiani, Executive Director of the Western New York Property Rights Association at the New York State Conservative Party conference in Albany.
Domiani was joined by Jay Bove of Park Strategies, who represents businesses, building owners, and landlords in the fight against the Good Cause Eviction bill.
“The proposed legislation should be called ‘Lease for Life.’ How does that sound? Not quite as positive. It’s the same bill but it sure can be the title of it,” said Damiani.
Advocates like the Housing Justice For All, a group of 80 groups representing tenants and the homeless, support passage of the “Good Cause Eviction” bill. They claim it protects tenants, especially the poor, from getting hit with unreasonable rent hikes and getting kicked out of apartments based on retaliation or discrimination.
It was proposed for passage last year, but failed to garner support. It is back again this year for potential approval in 2024.
“Landlords can kick out tenants even for patently unfair reasons – like retaliation for raising concerns about living conditions – and spike the rent,” wrote the Housing Justice For All on its website.
Both Damiani and Bove stated the proposed legislation goes way too far in the other direction and makes it practically impossible to evict any tenant, no matter how “bad” a tenant they could be.
“This proposed law forces landlords to automatically renew a lease, once it is signed. It must continue to be renewed, with virtually no exceptions,” said Bove.
“Lifetime tenancy gets created. Our goal is to keep tenants happy. Our business model is not to evict people. But under this law, no matter how horrible a tenant is, you can’t get rid of them. You can have a tenant causing problems for all other tenants in the building, and landlords have practically no rights to evict them,” added Bove.
The proposed law would basically limit the legal reasons why landlords can end leases and kick tenants out, as well as implement rent control type limits on housing and apartments.
Landlords and property owners would be prohibited from evicting tenants without a court order and can’t remove a tenant for not paying rent if a rent increase was more than three percent or one-and-a-half times the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Landlords praised lawmakers when they refused to pass the “Good Cause Eviction” bill in the 2023 legislative session. Now they fear it’s rearing it could become a much bigger piece of affordable housing legislation that could be passed this year.
“There’s an end game right now. You can bring an eviction proceeding at the end of the lease. The contract has ended. Under this new law, this mechanism is no longer a possibility. Imagine having a nightmare tenant, you’ve lost all property rights,” concluded Damiani.