Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. wrote an op-ed in City and State today calling on the New York State Legislature to pass Bill S8559, sponsored by state Senator Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Member Micah Lasher, which will better protect New Yorkers from tenant harassment. 

D.A. Bragg writes, “Manhattan is facing a housing crisis. Rising rents and scarcity not only make it difficult for New Yorkers to find safe affordable homes, but create a breeding ground for fraud, scams and harassment.” 

To hold bad actors accountable, the D.A.’s Office “has indicted a wide range of bad actors who allegedly preyed on homeowners and tenants: four rental scammers defrauded apartment hunters out of thousands of dollars; landlords harassed rent-regulated tenants in Chelsea; and multiple individuals and companies committed deed fraud in Harlem.” 

To protect New York tenants and homeowners, D.A. Bragg writes, “I created the Manhattan District Attorney’s first Housing and Tenant Protection Unit three years ago to address and root out this type of conduct. While we are stepping in and holding unscrupulous individuals accountable, we need additional legislation that would strengthen criminal penalties, including new tools to prosecute landlords who harass rent-regulated tenants.” 

D.A. Bragg calls for additional deterrents which “would create a new class D felony for aggravated harassment of a rent-regulated tenant.” He adds, “One challenge prosecuting tenant harassment is that the penalties are the same regardless of how many units or buildings are impacted. It doesn’t matter if you harass two tenants in one building or 10 tenants across multiple properties: We can only charge a class E felony.” 

Additionally, “Under our proposal, anyone who engages in a ‘systematic ongoing course of conduct’ across multiple properties could now be charged with a class D felony. This would reflect the reality of tenant harassment, which is that it is often occurring in several buildings owned by the same group or individual. This change would allow more tenants to get justice and act as a meaningful deterrent to landlords.” 

This bill also creates more significant penalties for recidivist landlords, allowing prosecutors “to charge a class D felony if the defendant has previously been convicted of class E felony harassment of a rent-regulated tenant in the first degree and repeats the same behavior. This will act as a deterrent for unscrupulous landlords who have previously harassed their tenants from repeating the same conduct.” 

D.A. Bragg concludes, “No tenant should have to choose between living in uninhabitable conditions or being forced onto the street. All Manhattanites deserve to live in safely maintained homes. I urge the state Legislature to pass S8559 and help our Housing and Tenant Protection Unit hold law-breaking landlords accountable.” 

Read the full op-ed here. 

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