Int. No. 757-A

By The Speaker (Council Member Mark-Viverito) and Council Members Arroyo, Chin, Dromm, Gentile, Johnson, Lander, Levine, Richards, Rose, Rodriguez, Rosenthal, Menchaca, Williams, Barron, Kallos and Wills

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to amending the definition of harassment to include certain buyout offers

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

                     Section 1. Declaration of legislative intent and findings. a. The council finds and declares that:

                     1. Although there are legitimate reasons for building owners to make buyout offers to tenants by offering money or other valuable consideration to vacate their apartments, in recent years, and due in part to rapidly increasing rents, the use of repeated buyout offers, particularly where a tenant has rejected such an offer and expressed a desire to receive no further offers, has become a form of harassment; and

                     2. The city has a substantial interest in balancing the rights of building owners to make these buyout offers with the rights of tenants to negotiate or reject such offers and to be free from harassment in the form of repeated, unwanted buyout offers.

                     b. The council finds that it is necessary and appropriate to place limited, short-term restrictions on the making of these buyout offers in order to protect tenants from harassment while still allowing owners and tenants to engage in negotiations over such offers.

§ 2. Subparagraph f of paragraph 48 of subdivision a of section 27-2004 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by local law number 7 for the year 2008, is amended to read as follows:

f. removing the door at the entrance to an occupied dwelling unit; removing, plugging or otherwise rendering the lock on such entrance door inoperable; or changing the lock on such entrance door without supplying a key to the new lock to the persons lawfully entitled to occupancy of such dwelling unit; [or]

                     § 3. Paragraph 48 of subdivision a of section 27-2004 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subparagraph f-1 to read as follows:

f-1. contacting any person lawfully entitled to occupancy of such dwelling unit, or any relative of such person, to offer money or other valuable consideration to induce such person to vacate such dwelling unit or to surrender or waive any rights in relation to such occupancy, for 180 days after the owner has been notified, in writing, that such person does not wish to receive any such offers, except that the owner may contact such person regarding such an offer if given express permission by a court of competent jurisdiction or if notified in writing by such person of an interest in receiving such an offer;

§ 4. This local law takes effect 90 days after it becomes law.

LS 2110

JW

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