NEW YORK – June 17, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today is urging any rent stabilized tenant who may have been improperly denied a lease renewal under rent stabilization laws to contact his office. Under the rent stabilization laws–which expired yesterday at midnight– landlords were obligated to provide lease renewals to rent stabilized tenants at least 90 days prior to their lease expiration. Any tenant who was entitled to a renewal lease under the law but was not offered one within the prescribed time frame, and whose tenancy is now being threatened, should contact the Attorney General’s office at 1 (800)771-7755 or New York State Homes and Community Renewal at 1 (844) 736-8435.
“Despite Albany’s inaction, in cases where landlords acted unlawfully by failing to provide renewal leases on a timely basis, no tenant should be immediately at risk of eviction or skyrocketing rent increases,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “My office will not tolerate property owners who use the expiration of the rent laws as way to violate tenants’ rights, and we will pursue any landlord who attempts to use this uncertain period as a means to displace law abiding residents.”
The Office of the Attorney General has dedicated significant resources to protecting tenants, including launching a joint harassment task force in February of this year with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York State Office of Housing and Community Renewal and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The task force has been actively investigating landlords who are using construction, intimidation and other tactics as a means to displace rent stabilized tenants.
The section of the law that dictates the process for lease renewal is 9 NYCRR Section 2523.5.
Contact
New York City Press Office: (212) 416-8060
Albany Press Office: (518) 776-2427
nyag.pressoffice (at) ag.ny (dot) gov
