Relates to allowing public welfare officials to withhold payment of rent to landlords who owe delinquent tax liabilities to local municipalities, school districts or counties.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5866
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 24, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. MORINELLO -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Social Services
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to allowing public
welfare officials to withhold payment of rent to landlords who owe
delinquent tax liabilities to local municipalities, school districts
or counties
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 143-b of the social services law, as added by chap-
2 ter 997 of the laws of 1962, subdivisions 5 and 6 as amended by chapter
3 701 of the laws of 1965, is amended to read as follows:
4 § 143-b. Avoidance of abuses in connection with rent checks. 1. When-
5 ever a recipient of public assistance and care is eligible for or enti-
6 tled to receive aid or assistance in the form of a payment for or toward
7 the rental of any housing accommodations occupied by such recipient or
8 [his] recipient's family, such payment may be made directly by the
9 public welfare department to the landlord.
10 2. Every public welfare official shall have power to and may withhold
11 the payment of any such rent in any case where [he] such official has
12 knowledge that there exists or there is outstanding any violation of law
13 in respect to the building containing the housing accommodations occu-
14 pied by the person entitled to such assistance which is dangerous,
15 hazardous [or], detrimental to life or health, or where the landlord of
16 such housing accommodations owes delinquent tax liabilities to local
17 municipalities, school districts or counties. A report of each such
18 violation or delinquent tax liability shall be made to the appropriate
19 public welfare department by the appropriate department or agency having
20 jurisdiction over such violations or delinquent tax liabilities.
21 3. Every public welfare official shall have the power to initiate or
22 to request the recipient to initiate before the appropriate housing rent
23 commission any proper proceeding for the reduction of maximum rents
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06823-01-5
A. 5866 2
1 applicable to any housing accommodation occupied by a person entitled to
2 assistance in the form of a rent payment whenever such official has
3 knowledge that essential services which such person is entitled to
4 receive are not being maintained by the landlord or have been substan-
5 tially reduced by the landlord.
6 4. The public welfare department may obtain and maintain current
7 records of violations in buildings where welfare recipients reside which
8 relate to conditions which are dangerous, hazardous [or], detrimental to
9 life or health, or where the landlord of such housing accommodations
10 owes delinquent tax liabilities to local municipalities, school
11 districts or counties.
12 5. (a) It shall be a valid defense in any action or summary proceeding
13 against a welfare recipient for non-payment of rent to show existing
14 violations in the building wherein such welfare recipient resides which
15 relate to conditions which are dangerous, hazardous [or], detrimental to
16 life or health, or the landlord of such housing accommodations owes
17 delinquent tax liabilities to local municipalities, school districts or
18 counties as the basis for non-payment.
19 (b) In any such action or proceeding the plaintiff or landlord shall
20 not be entitled to an order or judgment awarding [him] possession of the
21 premises or providing for removal of the tenant, or to a money judgment
22 against the tenant, on the basis of non-payment of rent for any period
23 during which there was outstanding any violation of law relating to
24 dangerous or hazardous conditions or conditions detrimental to life or
25 health or the landlord of such housing accommodations owed delinquent
26 tax liabilities to local municipalities, school districts or counties.
27 For the purposes of this paragraph such violation of law shall be deemed
28 to have been removed and no longer outstanding upon the date when the
29 condition constituting a violation was actually corrected, such date to
30 be determined by the court upon satisfactory proof submitted by the
31 plaintiff or landlord.
32 (c) The defenses provided herein in relation to an action or proceed-
33 ing against a welfare recipient for non-payment of rent shall apply only
34 with respect to violations or delinquent tax liabilities reported to the
35 appropriate public welfare department by the appropriate department or
36 agency having jurisdiction over such violations or delinquent tax
37 liabilities.
38 6. Nothing in this section shall prevent the public welfare department
39 from making provision for payment of the rent which was withheld pursu-
40 ant to this section upon proof satisfactory to it that the condition
41 constituting a violation was actually corrected or delinquent tax
42 liabilities owed to local municipalities, school districts or counties
43 were paid. Where rents were reduced by order of the appropriate rent
44 commission, the public welfare department may make provision for payment
45 of the reduced rent in conformity with such order.
46 7. In the event a public welfare official has withheld the payment of
47 any rent under this section due to delinquent tax liabilities to local
48 municipalities, school districts or counties for a year or more, such
49 withholding may be applied to such delinquent tax liabilities.
50 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
