A 1618: Provides that penalties may be levied against a person who intentionally withholds a housing accommodation from the market, including for the purpose of future co-operative conversion.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1618 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY January 10, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Housing AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York and the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, in relation to warehousing of housing accommodations and penalties therefor The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative findings and intent. The legislature finds and 2 declares that each person in the state shall have a right to be housed 3 and that such right to housing is a basic human right. 4 The legislature further finds and declares that the practice of "ware- 5 housing", that is of intentionally withholding housing accommodations 6 from the housing market, including the withholding of apartments for 7 purposes of future co-operative apartment conversion, has contributed 8 significantly to the shortage of housing in this state, especially in 9 the city of New York. 10 The legislature further finds and declares that the practice of ware- 11 housing has violated the right to housing of many of the citizens and 12 residents of this state. 13 It is thus the intent of the legislature to eliminate the practice of 14 warehousing by providing strong penalties to deter such practice. 15 § 2. Section 26-412 of the administrative code of the city of New York 16 is amended by adding a new subdivision g to read as follows: 17 g. It shall be unlawful to harass a tenant to obtain vacancy of such 18 tenant's housing accommodation or to have intentionally withheld a hous- 19 ing accommodation from the market, including withholding such accommo- 20 dation for the purpose of future co-operative apartment conversion. For 21 the purposes of this subdivision, harassment consists of engaging in a 22 course of conduct or repeatedly committing acts which alarm or seriously 23 annoy a tenant or other person residing in the tenant's housing accommo- 24 dation and which serve no legitimate purpose. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03223-01-5 
 A. 1618 2 1 § 3. Paragraph 2 of subdivision c of section 26-516 of the administra- 2 tive code of the city of New York, as amended by section 23 of part A of 3 chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows: 4 (2) to have harassed a tenant to obtain vacancy of [his or her] such 5 tenant's housing accommodation or to have intentionally withheld a hous- 6 ing accommodation from the market, including withholding such accommo- 7 dation for the purpose of future co-operative apartment conversion, the 8 commissioner may impose by administrative order after hearing, a civil 9 penalty for any such violation. Such penalty shall be at a minimum in 10 the amount of two thousand but not to exceed three thousand dollars for 11 the first such offense, and at minimum in the amount of ten thousand but 12 not to exceed eleven thousand dollars for each subsequent offense or for 13 a violation consisting of conduct directed at the tenants of more than 14 one housing accommodation. 15 § 4. Clause (ii) of paragraph 3 of subdivision a of section 12 of 16 section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency 17 tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, as amended by section 27 18 of part A of chapter 20 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as 19 follows: 20 (ii) to have harassed a tenant to obtain vacancy of [his] such 21 tenant's housing accommodation or to have intentionally withheld a hous- 22 ing accommodation from the market, including withholding such accommo- 23 dation for the purpose of future co-operative apartment conversion, the 24 commissioner may impose by administrative order after hearing, a civil 25 penalty for any such violation. Such penalty shall be at minimum in the 26 amount of two thousand but not to exceed three thousand dollars for the 27 first such offense, and at minimum in the amount of ten thousand but not 28 to exceed eleven thousand dollars for each subsequent offense or for a 29 violation consisting of conduct directed at the tenants of more than one 30 housing accommodation. 31 § 5. This act shall take effect immediately provided that the amend- 32 ment to section 26-412 of the city rent and rehabilitation law made by 33 section two of this act shall remain in full force and effect only so 34 long as the public emergency requiring the regulation and control of 35 residential rents and evictions continues, as provided in subdivision 3 36 of section 1 of the local emergency housing rent control act; and 37 provided further that the amendment to section 26-516 of the rent 38 stabilization law of nineteen hundred sixty-nine made by section three 39 of this act shall expire on the same date as such law expires.