Seminal. Ground-breaking. A pivotal development.
Those and many additional descriptors have been employed by wide-ranging commentators in media accounts over the past several months that spotlight noteworthy legislation informing New York City and State housing laws.
What an article posted last fall by the on-line publication Curbed terms a “landmark bill” formally goes by the name of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. The law contains a number of provisions that tenant-rights advocates have long endorsed and fought hard for. They now hope that new rules equate to new – that is, more consistently pro-tenant – outcomes in matter ranging from rental application fees and security deposits to lease hikes and unit maintenance.
It likely seems too soon to form reasoned conclusions regarding any of those or related matters.
As Housing Rights Initiative Executive Director Aaron Carr notes, “While the rent reforms were undoubtedly historic, we must remain vigilant.”
We agree with that assessment at Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben & Joseph LLP (and, in fact, have worked with Aaron closely on many matters). The deep legal team at our long-established Manhattan law firm commands centuries of collective experience promoting the housing rights of multiple parties in matters featuring landlord challenges. In the proven work we do for valued clients who face eviction, rent increases, maintenance issues and other infringing actions, we are always heedful of the fact that alert advocacy must always attend legal changes.
The above-cited Curbed piece notes that, pointing out myriad alleged abuses of the new law by some city landlords and other actors.
We’ll take a closer look at what Curbed terms “some of the tenant-landlord issues to look out for” in another blog post.
