AG Schneiderman introduces new bill — the Tenant Protection Act of 2017

Via the EVG inbox...

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today introduced the Tenant Protection Act of 2017, a new bill aimed at holding New York’s most unscrupulous landlords criminally accountable for tenant harassment.

Current state law requires that prosecutors reach an inexplicably high evidentiary bar in order to criminally convict a landlord of Harassment of a Rent Regulated Tenant — which is why, in the twenty years since its initial enactment by the NYS Legislature, not a single landlord has ever been convicted of that crime. The Attorney General’s Tenant Protection Act would change that, setting a more reasonable standard that eliminates the need to prove physical injury to a tenant, and opening the door to prosecutions arising out of more commonplace and insidious tactics — such as turning off heat and hot water, exposing tenants to hazardous materials, and making rent-stabilized buildings deliberately uninhabitable for current tenants and their families.

The Tenant Protection Act of 2017 was introduced today by Attorney General Schneiderman as a program bill, and will be sponsored by Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Joseph Lentol.

“The laws should protect tenants, not greedy landlords who make their buildings uninhabitable in an effort to force families out of their homes,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “It’s clear that our existing criminal laws are simply inadequate when it comes to protecting tenants from these dangerous tactics by landlords. We must give prosecutors the tools necessary to protect tenants — and stem the rising tide of tenant harassment that is undermining affordability around New York.”

Read the full release on the bill here.

Attorney General files lawsuit against local landlord Marolda Properties; accused of intimidating rent-stabilized tenants

Via the EVG inbox this morning...

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today filed a lawsuit against Marolda Properties, Inc., a Manhattan property management company that manages rent-regulated apartment buildings in the New York City metropolitan area including in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, and affiliated landlords that own the buildings.

The lawsuit is the result of a joint investigation between the Attorney General’s Office and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Tenant Protection Unit.

The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, alleges that Marolda Properties and the other defendants improperly sought to evict rent-regulated tenants by serving notices and bringing proceedings in housing court falsely alleging that the tenants no longer occupied the premises as their primary residence. The lawsuit also alleges that defendants refused to renew tenants’ legally-required leases, overcharged and failed to account for rent paid by tenants, did not conduct necessary and proper repairs and renovations, and engaged in other harassing, deceptive and retaliatory behavior.

The affiliated landlords named in the lawsuit include Green Leaf Associates, LLC, Forsyth Green, LLC, Forsyth Blue, LLC, 83-85 Baxter Street, LLC, 7 Rivington Street, LLC, 90 Elizabeth St., LLC, Ludlow 65 Realty LLC, 13-15 Essex Street, LLC, 145 Ave. C., LLC, and 100 Forsyth Associates, LLC.

Read the full release from the AG's office here.

145 Avenue C (649 E. Ninth St.) sold in 2011 for $9.7 million. An entity named Ninth and C LLC is listed as the building's owner, according to public records. At the time of the sale, a resident told us that Marolda Properties would manage the building. Ninth and C LLC has an address in Houston.