Increases the ability to remove persons from premises used for illegal purposes

2. Provides an owner the right to have the legal basis of the notice served upon him requiring removal of a tenant clarified;

3. Adds tenant and community organizations to the current parties that have standing to initiate notice requiring an owner to initiate the removal of a person using a premises for an illegal activity and adds these groups to the current parties that can bring a proceeding under Article 7 to remove an occupant conducting an illegal activity where an owner fails to act;

4. A presumptive value for criminal convictions involving controlled substance and marijuana are added as equivalents to those that exist for gambling and prostitution;

5. The burden of proof is set expressly as preponderance of the evidence;

6. A blanket requirement for criminal convictions is expressly rejected;

7. The need for a notice to cure is expressly rejected.

Reasons for support

This long standing law has recently been utilized as a mechanism to evict drug dealers from properties. The Bawdy House Law is a statutory conferral of standing to parties whose lives and property are affected by the presence of an illegal activity in their neighborhoods. The grounds for initiating an action is similar to the basis for initiating an action in the public nuisance law, where a person affected by a nuisance may bring an action for abatement and damages against the person causing the nuisance. The statutory conferral of standing is not unique and parallels provisions in the Multiple Dwelling Law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law and the State Finance Law.

This bill updates and clarifies the Bawdy House Law to make it a more effective tool to rid buildings of drug dealers and drug dens. This legislation would delete archaic and outdated terms and provide more reasonable notice and proceeding timetables. The bill would also expand the grounds to evict and recover a premises to include the possession of controlled substances. Community and tenant organizations can provide effective assistance in the fight to rid building of drug dealers and drug dens. The Bawdy House Law gives special standing to persons located within 200 feet of an illegal business. The bill adds to the current list of those with standing, tenant and community organizations and enables all persons with standing that are within 1,000 feet of a premises where illegal activity is taking place to serve owners with a written notice of illegal activity and requiring them to initiate a proceeding to evict. Where owners fail to act, the bill will add these organizations to those that already have standing to bring a proceeding to remove the occupant conducting an illegal activity. In addition, the bill expands the unrealistic time frame established in the Bawdy House Law to initiate a proceeding from five to 20 days and provides owners with the right to have the legal basis of the notice that is served upon them by tenants or qualified organizations clarified.

The bill also codifies several important points which have been seriously contested in recent cases commenced pursuant to the Bawdy House Law. First, the bill provides that notices to cure and notice of termination are not required in this type of case. Authorities have held that these notices are reasonable only when a tenant's or subtenant's conduct is in violation of a provision of the lease but never when it is in violation of the law. Second, the bill expressly identifies selling narcotics as one of the illegal businesses which provide the grounds for an eviction. The retail and wholesale selling of narcotics from inside a multiple dwelling is a modern phenomenon and should be clearly identified as an illegal business. Third, this bill sets the preponderance of evidence as the standard of proof that the petitioner must carry. Fourth, it expressly rejects the notion that criminal convictions are a prerequisite to the commencement of actions of this type. Finally, the bill increases the potential amount of the civil fine for non-compliance which is paid to a municipality from $5,000 to $10,000.

Effective date

Immediately.