What's happening
This bill establishes commercial rent protections in New York City, restricting rent increases and enhancing tenants' rights and legal remedies.
Why it matters
Makes it significantly harder for landlords to increase commercial rents mid-lease. , requiring not just tenant consent but also an independent arbitrator's review to ensure any increase is not fraudulent and stays within fair market value—potentially curbing sharp, unexpected rent hikes for small businesses and nonprofits.
Strengthens legal recourse and protections for commercial tenants. , allowing them to sue for injunctive relief and recover attorney’s fees if landlords violate the new rules, which lowers the financial barriers for tenants to challenge unfair practices.
Explicitly bans retaliation by landlords against tenants who assert their rights under these protections. , with violators facing both actual and punitive damages, further discouraging abusive landlord behavior.
Prohibits lease clauses that waive or limit tenants’ rights to legal remedies or court access. , ensuring that all commercial tenants retain their full legal rights regardless of what is written in their lease agreements, and making such waivers legally invalid.
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Who cares
New York City commercial tenants
The bill would restrict rent increases during a lease term and allow tenants to challenge noncompliant increases in court, with attorney’s fees and costs if they prevail.
Commercial landlords and sublessors
The bill would require an arbitrator’s determination that a rent increase without the tenant’s written consent is neither fraudulent nor above fair market value, and would prohibit retaliation against tenants exercising their rights.
Cultural organizations and nonprofits with commercial leases
The bill would cover their premises and invalidate lease provisions that waive tenant protections or access to judicial redress.
Commercial lease arbitrators
They would review covered rent increases under state arbitration rules and make a good-faith effort to let tenants attend, be heard and have reasonable preparation time.
Headline styles
Protect Commercial Renters
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 26
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to cities
- Referred to rules
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Protect Commercial Renters' Rights
In Assembly Committee · Cities · Sponsor Joseph Lentol
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
6570
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
June 16, 2019
Introduced by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to commercial rent protections
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Title 22 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new chapter 12 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 12
COMMERCIAL TENANCIES
§ 22-1201 Definitions. a. "Commercial premises" shall mean a building or space occupied for non-residential purposes including, but not limited to, manufacturing, retail, professional services, offices, assembling, processing, cultural and not-for-profit entities that are present in the city of New York, who have a valid commercial lease.
b. "Landlord" shall mean any owner, lessor, sublessor or other person entitled to receive rent for the use or occupancy of any commercial premises, or an agent thereof.
c. "Rent" shall mean any and all consideration, including but not limited to pass-alongs, received by the landlord in connection with the use or occupancy of any commercial premises.
d. "Tenant" shall mean tenant, subtenant, lessee, sublessee, or any other persons lawfully entitled to use or occupancy of any commercial premises.
§ 22-1203 Commercial rent requirements. a. The rent for any commercial premises shall not be increased by the landlord during the term of the lease, without the written consent of the tenant, for any reason without a determination by an arbitrator that such rent increase is not fraudulent and is not above the fair market value of the commercial premises.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13144-02-9
S. 6570 2
b. All arbitration conducted for the purposes of this section shall be subject to the provisions of article seventy-five of the civil practice law and rules. The landlord and the arbitrator shall make a good faith effort to allow the tenant to attend and be heard at a hearing and to have reasonable time to prepare for such hearing.
c. In the event that a tenant does not believe a rent increase was in compliance with subdivision a of this section, the tenant may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction for injunctive relief and such other remedies as may be appropriate. If the court finds in favor of the tenant, it shall award such person, in addition to other relief, reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
§ 22-1205 Retaliation. No landlord shall in any way retaliate against any tenant for the tenant's assertion or exercise of any rights under this chapter. Any such retaliation may subject the landlord to a suit for actual and punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees.
§ 22-1207 Waiver. No provision in any lease, rental agreement, or agreement made in connection with a lease which waives or diminishes any right of the tenant under this chapter is valid.
§ 22-1209 Inconsistency with other laws. In the event of any inconsistency with any other laws of the city of New York, this chapter shall take precedence.
§ 22-1211 Commercial lease requirements. a. The lease for any commercial premises shall not contain a waiver of the right to seek court intervention or judicial redress for any issue arising under the lease.
b. Any provision in any lease, rental agreement, or agreement made in connection with a lease which waives or diminishes any of the rights to judicial intervention or redress under this chapter shall be deemed invalid.
§ 2. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid and after exhaustion of all further judicial review, the judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this act directly involved in the controversy in which the judgment shall have been rendered.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to commercial rent protections
Purpose
To ensure that commercial tenants in New York City have access to the courts to seek declaratory judgment relief when their landlord asserts they've defaulted notwithstanding any lease provisions that purport to waive the right to seek such relief.
Summary of provisions
Section one of the bill amends Title 22 of the administrative code of the city of New York by adding a new chapter 12 regarding commercial tenancies.
Section two of the bill sets forth a severability clause.
Section three of the bill sets forth the effective date.
Justification
On May 7, 2019, the Court of Appeals decided by a 4-3 majority in 159 MP Corp v Redbridge Bedford that when the parties to a commercial lease are sophisticated and counseled, any provisions of the lease that waive the right of commercial tenants to seek declaratory judgment relief are not void and unenforceable as a matter of public policy, upending a long- standing doctrine to the contrary.
The majority's rationale was that these agreements should be enforced according to their plain language pursuant to our strong public policy favoring freedom of contract. Our State's commitment to freedom of contract is so powerful, they reasoned, that it cannot be overcome by competing public policies unless, for example, the legislature has expressly adopted a statute prohibiting waiver.
The majority's decision will result in the elimination of the "Yellow- stone injunction," a common-law precedent that has existed in New York for more than half a century. That injunction allows commercial tenants to determine their responsibilities under the terms of their lease agreements without risking eviction. The Yellowstone injunction expresses this State's public policy and is grounded in a century-old principle broadly favoring the availability of declaratory relief in preference to more protracted, costly and antagonistic litigation.
After this Court of Appeals decision, commercial building owners and landlords will undoubtedly include a waiver of declaratory and Yellow- stone relief in their leases as a matter of course. Those clauses will enable them to terminate leases based on a tenant's technical or dubious violation whenever rent values in the neighborhood have increased suffi- ciently to entice landlords to shirk their contractual obligations or act in bad faith.
The 4 to 3 majority opinion insists that its decision represents the application of the well-settled public policy supporting freedom of contract, but that policy consideration ought to be balanced against other equally compelling matters of public concern. The majority's decision will deny commercial tenants access to the courts, alter the landscape of landlord-tenant law and of neighborhoods throughout the state - for decades to come, absent legislative action.
Legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately the addition, amend- ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen- tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.