Blog

The City Council was unable to pass a bill that would have prevented landlords from running criminal background checks on potential tenants, due to lack of support. The bill, titled the Fair Chance for Housing Act, was introduced in August of 2020, but was just voted on this month.Many argue that...

Governor Kathy Hochul has recently announced the enactment of a law that will significantly increase protections for loft residents. This bill makes it unlawful for any loft owner to interrupt, deny, or discontinue essential services or create an uninhabitable environment in a multiple dwelling u...

           The State of New York announced on November 12, 2021, that it was no longer accepting applications for rent relief through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). At that time the $2.5 billion program had received over 280,000 applications and provided financial assistance to a...

Accessory Dwelling Units (“ADUs”) are typically accessories to an existing home. They are usually rentals, either an attached apartment to an existing house or a smaller, detached unit. However, Princeton, New Jersey has just passed one of the most progressive ADU ordinances in the New York metro...

  Before joining Moss and Tapia, I knew very little about landlord-tenant law, or even real estate law for that matter. Since beginning work in November I have learned quite a bit, but I know that I am still learning. However, as someone who recently moved to NYC and went through the appli...

A Win for Now Continued Protection for Certain Commercial Tenants of NYC In September of 2020, Manhattan Democrat City Council Member, Carlina Rivera, introduced legislation “Local Law 55” that temporarily suspended personal liability provisions in leases of certain busine...

On September 2nd, 2021, New York's eviction moratorium was extended until January 15th, 2022. Under this new moratorium, all protections of the Tenant Safe Harbor Act remain in place for residential tenants who are suffering financial hardships, as a result of the COVD-19 Pandemic. It also includ...

We are back with more updates!Vaccine MandateYesterday New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced another vaccine mandate. Starting December 27, 2021 all private employers in the city must be vaccinated. Along with this, children ages 5-11 must at least have their first dose in order to enter a...

 Now that Emergency Rental Assistance (“ERAP”) funds have run out, the Community Housing Improvement Program, an organization that represents 4,000 housing operators, has said that New York state lawmakers and New York Governor Kathy Hochul need to allocate an additional $2 billion to the program...

As recent as last Monday, November 15, Poughkeepsie became the most recent municipality to adopt “Good Cause” legislation. Other municipalities, such as Albany and Hudson, passed similar legislation months earlier. Although NY state law currently prohibits NYC from passing this type of legislat...

            New York's new eviction moratorium seems to be finally coming to an end after almost 20 months. Up until a few months ago, New Yorkers facing eviction could block their case from moving forward by filling out a form stating they lost income due to the pandemic and were unable to pay r...

Happy Tuesday! Let's talk a little about Connecticut today. In an article published by the CT mirror, Connecticut is now going to audit how every town used their federal CARES Act funding. 169 towns and cities spent roughly $60 million in federal relief funding. This money was meant to help loca...

Happy Monday!On Sunday November 21, 2021 the LRAP portal officially closed. I hope everyone applied while they had the chance. The good news for tenants is that they now have the right to at least some legal assistance and lower-income renters may be eligible for full representation. All this was...

Monday we talked about how the ERAP portal has shut down, now let's talk about what this means for tenants and housing courts. CHIP believes that even if some funding is reallocated, it will only be half of the amount that was requested. OTDA says that this shut down will give them the ability to...

    Let's start off with the latest news on ERAP. New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Friday that the Emergency Rental Assistance Program would shut down Sunday, November 14 at 10 PM. Due to all the money already being distributed. A formal request by the New York Congressional De...

  Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill that will extend the deadline for local governments to declare a housing “emergency” so as to extend rent control, until July 1, 2022. What this means in New York City, is that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development will have more t...

New York City has a new mayor. Congratulations Eric Adams. Let's talk about what this means for property owners and renters. In his proposal he mentioned that he is going to work towards adding affordable housing for everyone even in wealthier areas. Repurposing city and private office buildings ...

Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she has requested more Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds. More than 250,000 applications have been submitted but as many as 100,000 of those applications will not be getting funds unless the state can get more funding for the program.Let's talk about t...

The latest on ERAP and LRAP:The issue is still the same, the program is out of funds and according to a survey done by CHIP about 200,000 renters have not applied for the program. Although some might not be eligible for ERAP, CHIP still urges renters to apply. As for LRAP the state has also under...

  On this rainy Tuesday we have come to report that Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed a bill declaring that a rent stabilized lease is a public benefit that is exempt from the reach of bankruptcy court proceedings. This decision was handed down in the Santiago v. Monteverde case wh...

  Let's talk more about ERAP. According to CHIP's latest survey only 44% of renters with arrears applied for the program. CHIP estimates that the program will need at least $2 billion more in funds. Although the question still is how to get this fund, CHIP is working hard to figure it ...

CHIP has notified us that OTDA will announce later this week that all of the ERAP funds and LRAP funds have been distributed and although they will keep accepting applications they have no solution to this dilemma. Newsday posted an article stating that about 27,000 Long Islanders are behind on r...

LRAP has had major success, although many believed that this program was going to bring a lot of frustration just like ERAP, the process has been going smoothly for landlords. For those of you who don't know what LRAP is, it is a landlord Rental Assistance Program. Landlords can now file the appl...

  According to CHIP many are considering passing the Good Cause Eviction, which is basically universal rent control. CHIP believes that the reason for this is to pressure the State Legislature to pass S3082/A5573 which is a statewide Good Cause Eviction bill that would cap residential ...

  Governor Kathy Hochul talked about her first 45 days in office. Her main priorities for these first 45 days were to combat COVID-19, getting aid to New Yorkers and changing the culture in Albany. In the fight to combat COVID-19 she released a nationwide health care vaccine mandate for wo...