Skip to content
A6967Assembly2017-2018 Session

Landlords Must Limit Tenant Damages

Official title

“Requires landlords to mitigate damages if a tenant vacates a premises in violation of the terms of the lease”

Sponsor Kenneth ZebrowskiAD-96+9 co-sponsorsAffects Legal
Status
In Senate Committee
Judiciary
Impact
6/10
Moderate
Passage
0%

Bill progress

Step 5 of 7

In Senate · Judiciary

What's happening

This bill requires landlords to make reasonable efforts to re-rent apartments and mitigate damages if a tenant breaks their lease.

Why it matters

  1. Protects tenants from excessive financial penalties. by ensuring they are not automatically liable for the full remainder of their lease if they need to move out early; the landlord must try to find a new tenant to limit losses.

  2. Increases landlord responsibility and accountability. by legally requiring landlords to make genuine, reasonable efforts to re-rent the unit at fair market value, rather than leaving it vacant while charging the former tenant.

  3. Shifts the burden of proof to landlords. in court cases about unpaid rent after a tenant breaks a lease, making it harder for landlords to claim damages without demonstrating their mitigation efforts.

  4. Prevents landlords from bypassing this obligation. by declaring any lease clauses that exempt them from the duty to mitigate damages as void and unenforceable, thereby strengthening renter protections statewide.

The daily · weekday mornings

Albany, before your first meeting.

Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.

Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.

Who cares

Headline styles

Landlords Must Limit Tenant Damages

Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.

Sponsors

Primary sponsor
Kenneth Zebrowski

Assembly Member · Assembly District 96

History

  1. Referred to judiciary
  2. Delivered to senate
  3. Passed assembly
  4. Ordered to third reading cal.485
  5. Advanced to third reading cal.357
  6. Reported
  7. Referred to judiciary

Full text

1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗

STATE OF NEW YORK

6967

2017-2018 Regular Sessions

IN ASSEMBLY

March 28, 2017

Introduced by M. of A. ZEBROWSKI, SEPULVEDA, COOK, HOOPER, VANEL, CAHILL, JAFFEE, GOTTFRIED, HARRIS, COLTON -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. D'URSO, SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary

AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to requiring landlords to mitigate damages if a tenant vacates a premises in violation of the terms of the lease

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. The real property law is amended by adding a new section 227-e to read as follows:

§ 227-e. Landlord duty to mitigate damages. In any lease or rental agreement covering premises occupied for dwelling purposes, if a tenant vacates a premises in violation of the terms of the lease, the landlord shall, in good faith, take reasonable and customary actions to rent the premises at fair market value. If the landlord rents the premises at fair market value, the new tenant's lease shall, once in effect, terminate the previous tenant's lease and mitigate damages otherwise recoverable against the previous tenant because of such tenant's vacating the premises. The burden of proof shall be on the party seeking to recover damages. Any provision in a lease that exempts a landlord's duty to mitigate damages under this section shall be void as contrary to public policy.

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD10688-01-7

Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.