Provides for enhanced enforcement of the warranty of habitability for housing accommodations; provides the court may award punitive damages to a tenant upon finding the landlord's breach of warranty was intentional and malicious.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2042
SPONSOR: Walker (MS) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the real property law, in relation to enforcement of the
warranty of habitability
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Real Property Law by granting
the courts discretion to award punitive damages in cases'where the
warranty of habitability is breached intentionally or with conscious
disregard to severe risks to the life, health, or safety of the tenant.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
This bill is to amend the Real Property Law by granting the courts
discretion to award punitive damages in cases where the warranty of
habitability is breached intentionally or with conscious disregard to
severe risks to the life, health, or safety of the tenant.
JUSTIFICATION::
Although the courts have awarded punitive damages for breach of the
warranty of habitability in certain egregious cases, the circumstances
in which punitive damages may be granted are defined solely with respect
to specific fact patterns addressed in existing decisional law. Without
a clear statutory mandate to award punitive damages in egregious cases
where the warranty is breached, the courts may be reluctant to extend
the application of existing case law, even in cases where doing so may
be merited for deterrence purposes. This bill would remedy that problem
by declaring that the policy of the State of New York is to deter inten-
tional violations of the warranty of habitability through awards of
punitive damages when necessary. Accordingly, this bill would amend
section 235-b of the Real Property Law by adding a new subdivision to
the warranty of habitability statute. The new subdivision would grant
courts the authority to issue punitive damage awards as a matter of law
in cases where the warranty is breached intentionally or with a
conscious disregard for the life, health, or safety of the tenant. By
officially sanctioning the use of punitive damage awards as for deter-
rence purposes in egregious cases, this bill enables courts to award
such damages with the imprimitur of the legislature rather than on the
solely analogical and sometimes speculative basis of existing case law.
In doing so, this bill would both codify and expand the bases for case
law. awards of punitive awards under existing decisional law. The cases
currently recognize intentional violations of the warranty as a basis
for punitive damages (See Minjak Co., v. Randolph, 140 A.D.2d 245; 528
N.Y.S.2d 554, 1st Dept 1988), but there is no clear basis in case law
for awarding such damages in cases where conclusive evidence of an
intentional breach is lacking, even though the landlord may have
consciously disregarded severe risk to the health and safety of the
tenants. In those cases, this bill would place such damage awards within
the sound discretion of the court and would provide a clear articulation
of the legislative purpose for authorizing such awards.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
2007-2008: A.9494A- Died in Rules
2009-2010: A.5662 -Referred to Housing
2013-2014: S.5474-Referred to Judiciary
2015-2016: A.6750 -Referred to Judiciary
2017-2018: S.3618-Referred to Judiciary
2019-2020: S.4794-Referred to Judiciary
2021-2022: A5546 -Referred to Housing,amend and recommit to Housing,
A5546A, reported referred to Codes, reported referred to Rules.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS::
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
This bill would take effect on the ninetieth day after becoming law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2042
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 23, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WALKER, VANEL, COLTON, COOK -- Multi-Sponsored by
-- M. of A. SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Hous-
ing
AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to enforcement of the
warranty of habitability
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative findings and purpose. The legislature hereby
2 finds that the rental housing market in the state of New York remains in
3 a state of crisis, due not only to severe shortages in the stock of safe
4 and affordable housing but also to the state of disrepair and blight
5 that afflicts rental housing opportunities available to people of lower
6 incomes throughout the state. The legislature further finds that the
7 warranty of habitability set forth in section 235-b of the real property
8 law represents a critical safeguard of the health and safety of tenants
9 across the state of New York by requiring that all rental housing accom-
10 modations be maintained in a safe and sanitary condition for the
11 tenants; that enforcement efforts by the several agencies of the city of
12 New York and the state of New York, although often successful, are not
13 always sufficient to deter such breaches of the warranty by such owners
14 and landlords, so that in spite of the protections provided by law,
15 every year many tenants in the state of New York must endure housing
16 conditions that fail to meet the basic standards of safety required by
17 law. In light of the foregoing, the legislature hereby finds that the
18 state of New York must adopt additional measures to deter the most egre-
19 gious breaches of the warranty of habitability set forth in section
20 235-b of the real property law, and that the codification of law award-
21 ing punitive damages to tenants who suffer intentional breaches of the
22 warranty is an appropriate method to realize such a purpose. The legis-
23 lature therefore enacts the following law granting the courts discretion
24 to award punitive damages in cases where the warranty of habitability
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06745-01-3
A. 2042 2
1 set forth in section 235-b of the real property law is breached inten-
2 tionally or with conscious disregard to severe risks to the life,
3 health, or safety of the tenant.
4 § 2. Section 235-b of the real property law is amended by adding a new
5 subdivision 4 to read as follows:
6 4. The court may award punitive damages to the tenant upon a finding
7 that the landlord's breach of the warranty set forth in this section was
8 intentional and malicious or demonstrates a conscious disregard of
9 severe risks to the life, health, or safety of the tenant. Punitive
10 damages under this section shall not be awarded to tenants of any such
11 multiple dwelling owned or operated by a municipal housing authority
12 organized pursuant to article thirteen of the public housing law.
13 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
14 have become a law.
