In a move sure to further strain the relationship between landlords and tenants in the COVID-19 era, it has now been reported that the New York State Senate is close to finalizing a bill enacting a blanket moratorium on evictions for an indefinite period, after the expiration of the current protections at the end of this month. State Senator Brian Kavanagh has stated, “It’s important we put a blanket moratorium in place that prevents all residential evictions. At a time when we are curtailing so many activities, we certainly shouldn’t be letting eviction marshals come to people’s homes and forcibly remove them.”
While the terms of the proposed bill have not yet been published, it has been reported that the Senate is considering imposing a blanket moratorium against all evictions for one year after the State’s declared Disaster Emergency is ended by New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo. The bill is expected to be finalized and introduced by the end of the year.
It is unclear at this time whether the New York State Assembly and/or Governor Cuomo are similarly in favor of the proposed blanket moratorium; as such, whether this proposed moratorium will ever come to fruition is unknown. However, as the current protections against evictions are soon set to expire, we expect that the New York State Legislature and/or Governor Cuomo will soon take action regarding same.
If you have any questions about how such a moratorium would impact you, and/or otherwise regarding the current status of landlord/tenant matters and protections in New York, please do not hesitate to give our office a call at 716-636-7600.