Permits court to order rent abatement in proceedings or actions to recover rent where the court finds conditions exist to constructively evict the tenant; rent may be abated for each day such condition exists; if court finds a condition which reduces habitability it may reduce rent owed by an amount between 10 and 50 percent of any amount owed.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1278
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 6, 2011
___________
Introduced by Sen. DUANE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing, Construction and
Community Development
AN ACT to amend the real property actions and proceedings law, in
relation to the abatement of rent where the landlord fails to make
repairs
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The real property actions and proceedings law is amended by
2 adding a new section 757 to read as follows:
3 § 757. Rent abatement for failure to make repairs. 1. Upon proper
4 proof of the existence of a condition that is, in the opinion of the
5 court, such as to constructively evict the tenant from a portion of the
6 premises occupied by him or her, the court shall stay any proceeding or
7 action for rent and shall reduce any rent due by a full day's rent for
8 each day the condition is not repaired.
9 2. If, in the opinion of the court, there has been proper proof of the
10 existence of a condition which reduces the habitability of the premises,
11 the court shall stay any proceeding or action for rent and shall reduce
12 any rent due by a percentage ranging from ten to fifty percent, repres-
13 enting, in the opinion of the court, the reduction of habitability
14 caused by the conditions in need of repair, for each day the condition
15 is not repaired.
16 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
17 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00955-01-1
