“Good Cause Evictions” Update
By Jamie Heiberger Harrison
For almost 2 years property Owners have had little to no recourse against non-paying or holdover Tenants. Now as we near what is supposed to be the end of the eviction moratorium, Property Owners may face a new challenge,“GOOD CAUSE EVICTIONS.”
What does “Good Cause Evictions” even mean? Historically, the State enacts legislation that has been vague and left open to interpretation by Courts and State Agencies; subject to challenge and /or full of loopholes. Some examples include the former 421a program that led to the Roberts decision, the four (4) year look back on rent overcharge, the HSTPA, the Governors Pandemic Orders and now, the possibility of
“Good Cause Evictions.”
So far Good Cause Evictions has only been enacted in a limited number of jurisdictions. The most recent to jump on the band wagon is Albany where Good Cause Eviction is already being challenged by Property Owners. Currently, the vast majority of non- paying or holdover Tenants remain in possession with no real end in sight. Sure they say the moratorium ends 1/15/22 but will it actually be over? When will owners be able to exercise their contractual or statutory rights and have a quick remedy for non-payors or those that holdover after their lease term.
It took well over a year from its enactment for the state to finally clarify the distinction between Tenants in the traditional sense and Cooperative Housing unit Tenant/ Shareholders. As a result, many Owners of individual units were stuck footing the Coop application fees for Buyers of Coops because the HSTPA failed to distinguish between Tenants as renters and Tenants as shareholders with proprietary
leases in Coops. Even if “Good Cause Evictions” never makes its way to NYC, don’t expect evictions to be taking place without “good cause” or a lot of effort and expense in order to allow the Courts to Control the pace and the outcome.
I cannot help but lose sleep over some of the truly heart wrenching situations that some of our clients currently face. We have a Single Condo Owner living abroad whose tenant stopped paying rent the minute he moved in, about one year before Covid. Years later we learn that this professional Tenant has been scamming people all over the East Coast and there is a warrant for him in the State of Conn. It turns out the Tenant presented fake checks and records to trick this one single Condo unit Owner into believing that he was a Tenant in good standing.
Now the case in Housing Court is still nowhere due to the moratorium which limited evictions to Nuisance matters. Our firm also started a Supreme Court action for damages against the con artist which is waiting to be heard.
My Partners and I really do worry about the future of private housing. While no one wants to see homelessness, there must be a better way to protect people from eviction and homelessness than placing the burden on the private sector. Too many people seem to believe that large rental portfolio Owners are able to afford to carry the non payors, but that is not always the case and is certainly not fair.
There are also many small property Owners in NY who are struggling to save their property as gas prices skyrocket, tax benefits get reduced, rent increases fall below the cost of inflation and now we face the possibility of the next dagger, “Good Cause Eviction.” Forcing individual Property Owners to subsidize their tenants is not and cannot be the Answer!!