A few property owners do not agree with some of the changes that are a part of the recently enacted tenant protection laws. They say it is causing friction in the way they do business.

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act was passed by the New York State Legislature in June. New rules include prohibiting security deposits from exceeding one month’s rent, requiring landlords to provide a 14-day notice for tenants to pay late rent before starting a court case for non-payment, and preventing eviction or dispute history from being a cause for denial of tenancy.

Jaime Michelle Caine, attorney and Partner of Boylan Code, says the bill is negatively impacting some tenants applying for housing.

“Landlords use to, as part of their screen tools, ask for a double security deposit,” said Caine, “or ask for first or last month’s rent when a tenant could not meet the standards of that landlord’s criteria. That would give tenants another option to be able to live in a house that was a little bit out of their reach or above their credit score. Now, tenants are just getting turned away.”

Concerned property owners say the new law will change the rental and real estate business, making it harder to collect payment for overdue rent and delaying evictions.

“Typically evictions would take a 30-day process,” said landlord Herman Colon of Rochester, “and then another thirty days possibly to rerent. At this time we are looking at roughly two to three months.”

“When you create policies and procedures that make it deleterious to investors to invest in that region,” said real estate developer Matt Drouin of Rochester, “it leads to disinvestment.”  

These property owners say a group of plans to address their concerns at Albany Lobby Day. Ryan Acuff, member of the Citywide Tenant Union of Rochester, says the new law strengthens tenants’ rights and is a huge step forward.

“Tenants’ rights have been weakened for decades,” said Acuff, “and now they’ve been expanded.”