The Battle Between Landlords and Tenants Begins

The New York Sun reports on a lawsuit filed by the Rent Stabilization Association, an organization representing landlords. They claim the four-month-old Tenant Protection Act, supported by the City Council, illegally includes the term "harassment" as a technical violation, since no one really knows what the term means. "For the first time, they are making a violation something that is not objective but something that is subjective. All we are saying is that this is not the purpose of the housing code," RSA's Mitchell Posilkin said. "What the council has done is ask inspectors to look into the mind of a landlord." One question we have: if there are laws preventing other kids of harassment (like sexual harassment in the workplace, which has a clear definition), why can't real estate harassment be defined?
'Harassment' Weighed as Battle Of Tenants, Landlords Heats Up [NY Sun]
"Woodfall's Law of Landlord and Tenant." Photo by umjanedoan

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"...why can't real estate harassment be defined?"

I know this one!

It's because bitter renters are parasites, right?

Oh wait... Curbed is in the other tab...

Posted by: deadnancy at August 19, 2008 11:18 AM

Can we say rather "symbiotes" ?

Posted by: bxgrl at August 19, 2008 11:40 AM

Interesting question Lisa. Typical that the term wasn't more defined when they crafted the bill. without taking sides, it should be feasible to delineate certain conditions as typifying harassment- ie refusal to repair hall lights, or make repairs to keep apartments habitable. Since that's related to the building code, deliberate non-compliance could be seen as tenant harassment. Quinn is not the best person for detail although her goal is admirable.

Posted by: east river at August 19, 2008 3:36 PM

landlords should do what Quinn and other council members do, keep phony books with ficticious companies, make the shell companies the ones responsible for making repairs and keep the money aside in a phony public-interest organization. Friends of flea bags, for instance.

Posted by: sam at August 19, 2008 5:09 PM

take bets some of them already do?

Posted by: east river at August 19, 2008 5:45 PM

Sam, as the executive director of the Friends of Flea Bags LLC I take offense at your crude inference.
We got the idea from Quinn.
Those guys and dolls at city hall are the slickest!

Posted by: Gary Cooper at August 19, 2008 7:56 PM

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August 19, 2008

The Battle Between Landlords and Tenants Begins

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