Relates to methods of billing and/or paying rent; provides that a landlord shall accept payment of rent by personal check and by mail; provides exceptions to such payment options when a check has been returned for insufficient funds or payment has been stopped on a check, draft or order.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5462
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BORES -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Housing
AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to the methods of
billing and/or payment of rent
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "multi-pay-
2 ment yielding equitable rent system (MYERS) act".
3 § 2. The section heading of section 235-g of the real property law, as
4 added by chapter 367 of the laws of 2010, is amended and three new
5 subdivisions 3, 4 and 5 are added to read as follows:
6 [Electronic] Methods of billing and/or payment of rent.
7 3. A landlord shall accept payment of rent by at least one form of
8 payment other than the following: wire transfer, cashier's check,
9 certified check, bank draft, money order, or any form of payment that
10 requires a lessee or tenant to incur a fee as a condition of payment.
11 4. A landlord may demand an exclusive form of payment if the tenant or
12 lessee has previously attempted to pay the landlord or landlord's agent
13 with a check drawn on insufficient funds or the tenant has instructed
14 the drawee to stop payment on a check, draft, or order for the payment
15 of rent to the landlord or landlord's agent. The landlord may demand or
16 require cash as the exclusive form of payment only for a period not
17 exceeding six months following an attempt to pay with a check on insuf-
18 ficient funds or following a tenant's instruction to stop payment. If
19 the landlord chooses to demand or require cash payment under these
20 circumstances, the landlord shall give the tenant a written notice stat-
21 ing that the payment instrument was dishonored and informing the tenant
22 that the tenant shall pay in cash for a period determined by the land-
23 lord, not to exceed six months and shall attach a copy of the dishonored
24 instrument to such notice.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09242-01-5
A. 5462 2
1 5. A landlord shall not require a lessee or tenant to physically
2 tender the payment of rent directly to the landlord unless the landlord
3 provides a location no less than three hundred feet from the building
4 containing or comprising the leased premises at which a lessee or tenant
5 can tender such payment.
6 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
7 have become a law.
