Photo: T.Dallas/Shutterstock.com

When New York lawmakers approved a historic overhaul of the state's rent laws last year, they didn't intend for the changes to place small landlords in financial distress, but attorneys and advocates for those property owners said Monday that's been the result.

The laws, advanced by Democratic majorities, were intended to empower tenants to combat unscrupulous behavior and rent increases from landlords, but advocates said Monday the pendulum has swung too far.

A coalition of landlords and tenants were in Albany to lobby members of the state Legislature on a series of proposed changes, which would roll back parts of the law they said have placed a strain on property owners.

Jaime Michelle Cain, a partner at Boylan Code in Rochester, said the first mistake from the Legislature was having the package of rent laws go into effect almost immediately after they were approved in June. That caused confusion among attorneys and judges, she said.

"From a practitioner standpoint, you've had attorneys who were gun-shy and didn't really understand the interpretation," Cain said. "When they appeared in court and started asserting things, the judges didn't know how to rule on cases. They still don't know how to rule on cases."

The new laws were passed last year to keep more units under rent control and prevent situations where landlords could raise the rent beyond approved rates. They also added more hurdles for landlords who want to file for the tenants to be evicted.

It's those deadlines, Cain said, that have placed a burden on small landlords, who now have to wait longer before a tenant is required to vacate the property.

"It's all these time periods that are built in to make the process elongated from the start," Cain said. "That's before you even get face to face with the judge and the tenant in court."

Where the eviction process, before the law, may have taken less than a month, Cain said the new statute has stretched that time frame to an average of more than two months. That's not sustainable for landlords who rely on rent as their source of income, she said.

One of those landlords is Deborah Pusatere, a landlord from the Albany area who owns Dekita LLC. She said Monday that the new laws have the potential to reduce her income because, for every month she has to wait for a tenant to be formally evicted, she's losing rent.

At the same time, her other bills don't stop. She, as a landlord, still has to pay the regular costs of owning a property, whether she's receiving rent from a tenant or not.

"With the new laws, I can't afford to sustain many evictions with the amount of income I'm using and stay in business, because my other bills are constant," Pusatere said. "If I have less coming in, then I have to make a choice on what I can pay going forward."

Pusatere said she's also been afflicted by confusion over the law, particularly from those on the bench. She said that, on one occasion, a judge from a different locality had to handle her case because the sitting jurist wasn't comfortable enough with the new law to make a decision.

"The judges still aren't comfortable ruling in certain courts," Pusatere said. "So, they're playing 'musical judge,' and it cost me an extra two weeks to actually get the warrant, and then the sheriff gives them another two weeks before they lock them out."

Cain said that kind of confusion among judges about the new law isn't unusual. After it took effect, she said she got a call from Justice Craig Doran, the administrative judge for the Seventh Judicial District in western New York.

"It was a call to ask if I could come in and explain the law, being a landlord-tenant attorney, to try to get everybody on the same page," Cain said.

That confusion may continue as Democrats in the Legislature consider measures to build on last year's major rent reforms.

They're likely to consider legislation in the coming months that would make it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants than under current law. They would have to show a so-called "good cause" for removing the tenant from their property.

That would add to the burden that some landlords are already facing under the new laws, Cain said, which could snowball to the detriment of tenants.

"These landlords are good for the state of New York," Cain said. "They're giving the housing, security, and safety these tenants need. If they're pushed too far because of things like the 'good cause' eviction, what we're already seeing is some of them exiting the market."

Democrats haven't indicated yet, this year, what they're sure to do when it comes to the state's rent laws. The changes passed last year were the most comprehensive in decades, and any amendments to reverse the law are unlikely at this point.

The Housing Justice For All campaign, a coalition of tenants and stakeholders who supported last year's laws, pushed back on efforts Monday to roll back the changes. They said lawmakers were unlikely to to be moved by the coalition of landlords and tenants Monday.

"For decades, these same landlords have reaped profits at the expense of low-income and working class tenants," Housing Justice For All said. "That era is thankfully over, and critics should know that any legislative proposal to erode these historic reforms is dead on arrival."

READ MORE:

Deregulation Under the New Rent Laws

The Intended Consequences of the HSTPA

Sweeping Reforms to Rent Overcharge Under New Rent Laws

Rent Overcharge by the Numbers: The HSTPA's 'New Math'