In our August 2023 article, we discussed how the New York State Legislature had just passed a controversial bill, Assembly Bill A-6216-B and Senate Bill S-2980-C (the "bill"), on the last day of the legislative session in June 2023. Part B of the bill was particularly problematic on its face because, in 2023, it purported to retroactively redefine the standard for establishing the "fraud exception" to the four-year statute of limitations and four-year "lookback rule" for rent overcharge claims under the "pre-HSTPA" law.

This law is only applicable to conduct occurring prior to June 14, 2019. The "fraud exception" effectively provides an exception to the entire "pre-HSTPA" statutory scheme for determining rent overcharge claims.

Thus, in 2023, the bill sought to amend the law applying to conduct occurring prior to June 2019, raising substantial questions about the bill's constitutionality and whether it would be signed into law by the governor.