NEW YORK (Sputnik) — New York City lawmakers passed new legislation to protect tenants of rent-controlled apartments facing growing harassment from landlords, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
"We won’t let tenants be intimidated and forced out of their homes," de Blasio said on Thursday. "These new laws protect tenants from harassment and aggressive buyout schemes."
De Blasio’s office defined "buyout schemes" as practices used to force tenants out of rent-regulates apartments.
"In fast-gentrifying neighborhoods, owners have used unscrupulous tactics to pressure tenants out of affordable apartments so they can reap rent increases from the turnover," de Blasio’s office stated.
The landlord tactics include threats, harassing tenants at their workplace or at late hours as well as hiring third-parties to intimidate tenants into taking a buyout offer they have already refused.
Three new laws that will go into effect on Friday make it unlawful for an owner to make a buyout offer within 180 days of a tenant refusing one.
The new laws also make it unlawful for an owner to threaten a tenant as well as to make a buyout offer without informing tenants of their right to stay in the apartment.
The penalty for violating the new laws ranges from $1,000 to $10,000 for a first offense, and fines are doubled for subsequent offenses.
