Council to hold hearing on 'good cause' eviction law - Rochester City Newspaper
City Council will hold its first public hearing on “good cause” eviction legislation at 5 p.m. Thursday. The hearing will be held on Zoom and also will be streamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
Councilmembers Mary Lupien, Stanley Martin, and Kim Smith submitted the proposed Eviction Reduction Law, which would spell out when a landlord has the right to evict a tenant and would prohibit landlords without a certificate of occupancy for their properties from evicting tenants. Landlords would be required to submit a valid certificate of occupancy at the time they file any eviction case.
An amendment submitted by Lupien this week added an asterisk to that requirement, stating landlords can begin eviction proceedings without a certificate of occupancy if they are pursuing one in “good faith.”
“Sometimes there is a valid reason that a landlord is not able to get a C of O,” Lupien said, in a phone call Thursday. “And this language is allowing for those situations.”
Lupien offered the example of a tenant who isn’t letting inspectors or repair people into their home or the city failing to perform a timely property inspection as valid reasons why landlords might not have certificates of occupancy.
“We may change language, we don’t think this is going to pass this month,” Lupien said. “We hope that it stays in committee and we can continue having these discussions.”
Council’s monthly meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15. The hearing Thursday will be preceded by a rally at City Hall held by the City-Wide Tenant Union and the Working Families Party.
Under the legislation, landlords could pursue eviction of tenants for failing to pay, as long as they haven’t raised their rents an “unconscionable” amount — whether an increase is unconscionable will be at the discretion of a judge. The law does provide some guidelines for judges to consider, such as a tenant’s ability to pay the increased rent or improvements made to the property.
Landlords could also seek to evict tenants for violating at least one significant term of their leases, for damaging the premises or turning them into a public nuisance, for using the premises for illegal purposes, for legal or health reasons, if the tenant repeatedly refuses the landlord from performing required repairs; or if a small landlord wants to recover a unit for a family member.
The latter reason does not apply if the tenant is over 62 or disabled.
Good cause eviction protections have been a long-standing demand of the Rochester City-Wide Tenant Union, which has argued that such laws would prevent rent spikes and unwarranted evictions. In January, the statewide eviction moratorium put in place during the pandemic came to a close, sparking concern from advocates that an eviction crisis could be coming to Rochester.
Similar laws are already on the books in Albany and states like California and Oregon. If adopted, Rochester would be the largest city in New York to pass a good cause evictions law..
The legislation is also a first for City Council, which adopted new rules in February. Prior to the rule change, Councilmembers generally did not submit legislation for consideration unless it was co-signed by the Council president. The bill typically wouldn’t be put on the agenda unless there was majority support for it.
The changes allow for any Councilmember to submit a bill, which is then run through the wringer in committee meetings.
Gino Fanelli is a CITY staff writer. He can be reached at (585) 775-9692 or [email protected].
source: https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/council-to-hold-hearing-on-good-cause-eviction-law/Content?oid=14364759
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