Establishes it shall be unlawful for a person to have his or her application to rent or lease a residence to be denied due to a previous housing court proceeding; allows a person aggrieved to maintain a civil action.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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457
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 5, 2011
___________
Introduced by Sens. KRUEGER, DUANE, HUNTLEY, SERRANO -- read twice and
ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on
Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to prohibiting
certain prior housing court proceedings from being considered by land-
lords in the lease of property for residential purposes
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds that some
2 landlords refuse to offer available units because prospective tenants
3 have previously been party to a judicial proceeding arising from a
4 dispute between themselves and a prior landlord, and also finds that
5 tenant screening reports are also being used by some landlords to inap-
6 propriately blacklist some prospective tenants. The legislature
7 believes that a tenant's prior appearance in a judicial proceeding is
8 not worthy of consideration when a landlord is reviewing a prospective
9 tenant's application, except under the limited circumstances permitted
10 by this act.
11 § 2. The real property law is amended by adding a new section 235-h to
12 read as follows:
13 § 235-h. Unlawful refusal to rent to a prospective tenant. 1. As used
14 in this section, the terms:
15 (a) "housing accommodation" includes any building, structure, or
16 portion thereof which is used or occupied or is intended, arranged or
17 designed to be used or occupied, as the home, residence or sleeping
18 place of one or more human beings.
19 (b) "tenant screening report" means any written, oral, or other commu-
20 nication of any information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a
21 consumer's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, charac-
22 ter, general reputation, personal characteristics, history of contact
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01011-01-1
S. 457 2
1 with any housing, civil or criminal court of any state, or mode of
2 living, which is used for or expected to be used or collected in whole
3 or part for the purpose of serving as a factor in evaluating a prospec-
4 tive tenant.
5 (c) "person" means any natural person, firm, partnership, joint
6 venture, corporation or association.
7 (d) "consumer reporting agency" means any person who, for monetary
8 fees, dues, or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in
9 whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer
10 credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of
11 furnishing consumer reports, tenant screening reports or other investi-
12 gative consumer reports to third parties.
13 2. It shall be an unlawful practice for any person, being the owner,
14 landlord, lessee, proprietor, manager, superintendent, agent or employee
15 of any housing accommodation to deny any person's application to rent or
16 lease a unit intended to be used primarily for residential purposes
17 based, wholly or in part, on information obtained from a tenant screen-
18 ing report. It shall also be unlawful to do so based on any information
19 indicating that such person was a litigant in an action or proceeding
20 brought under article seven of the real property actions and proceeding
21 law or section one hundred ten of the New York city civil court act in
22 the supreme court or in the housing part of the New York city civil
23 court, or based on any of the facts or alleged facts derived from such a
24 proceeding, unless:
25 (a) such person previously appeared as respondent or defendant in an
26 action to recover real property or a summary proceeding to recover
27 possession of real property; and
28 (b) a judge ruled in favor of the petitioner or plaintiff; and
29 (c) a warrant of eviction was issued against such person in that
30 action or proceeding; and
31 (d) such person, had not entered into a voluntary agreement, such as a
32 stipulation, consent decree, or any other agreement consenting to a
33 judgment of possession.
34 3. Any person aggrieved by a violation of this section may maintain an
35 action in any court of competent jurisdiction for:
36 (a) an injunction to enjoin and restrain such unlawful practice;
37 (b) actual damages sustained as a result of such unlawful practice;
38 (c) court costs;
39 (d) legal fees;
40 (e) punitive damages as determined by the trier of fact; and
41 (f) compensatory damages as determined by the trier of fact.
42 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all
43 landlord tenant relationships entered into or renewed on or after such
44 date.
