Senate Bill S5066

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S5066

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the New York city civil court act, in relation to hous-
ing courts

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this legislation is to update the New York City court
system.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the New York City Civil Court Act by adding a new
subdivision (r), by devoting a new subpart of the court where: (1) every
party to the proceeding is a natural persons; or (2) the petirtioner
alleges in its petition that it is a "small landlord" as defined in
subdivision 3 of section 211 of the Real Property Law.  Additionally,
this section lays out for every two (2) million residents, the housing
court will consist of one housing part, two trial parts, and two resol-
              

ution parts. The Office of Court Administration will implement these
provisions and are required to establish standards and goals necessary
to resolve any complaint within 120 days of the start of such
proceedings.

Section 2 amends section 102-a of the New York City Civil Court Act to
add new subdivision 5, which states housing court judges shall be
appointed pursuant to subdivision (f) of this section.

Section 3 sets the effective date, and states the addition, amendment,
and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary to implement this act
is authorized to be completed on or before the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

As it is well known, New York is currently facing an extreme housing
crisis and New Yorkers continue to struggle with the current state of
housing; this is exacerbated by the long delays in our housing court
system that New York residents face as both tenants and small landlords.

Small landlords, as defined by the Real Property Law, have invested,
with great risk, their life savings to purchase a building with fewer
units and they do not have the benefit of a large, diversified portfolio
to be able to weather the delays in the housing court system and await
the resolution of cases that involve situations of rightful eviction. At
the same time, tenants who live in the building with their landlords can
face daily harassment and threats of unstable housing: harassment that
can be active and direct, along with complete negligence that makes for
uninhabitable homes.

Both types of scenarios are untenable situations for both, or either,
parties that cannot endure the delays that take often over a year to
resolve.

This legislation aims to complement current housing court statutes and
provide a clearer path for common sense housing-related adjudication.
Reorganizing the cases that are heard for resolution, by shifting
forward the cases in which both the landlord and tenants are natural
persons who live in these unsustainable situations, will help streamline
and clear out part the logjam that exists and allow for other cases to
then be heard.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.8930 of 2023-2024: Amended and Recommitted to Judiciary

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None at this time.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall become a law.  Effec-
tive immediately, the addition, amendment, and/or repeal of any rule or
regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective
date is authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective
date.