Bill Text: NY A08482 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2020-07-22 - REFERRED TO RULES [A08482 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A08482-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8482

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     August 7, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. OTIS -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Judiciary

        AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation  to  requiring  land-
          lords  to  mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in
          violation of the terms of the lease

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

     1    Section 1. Section 227-e of the real property law, as added by section
     2  4  of  part  M  of chapter 36 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    § 227-e. Landlord duty to mitigate damages. In  any  lease  or  rental
     5  agreement,  excluding any real estate purchase contract defined in para-
     6  graphs (a), (c) and (d) of subdivision  four  of  section  four  hundred
     7  sixty-one  of  this  chapter,  [covering  premises occupied for dwelling
     8  purposes,] if a tenant vacates a premises in violation of the  terms  of
     9  the  lease, the landlord shall, in good faith and according to the land-
    10  lord's resources and abilities, take reasonable and customary actions to
    11  rent the premises at fair market value or at the rate agreed  to  during
    12  the  term  of the tenancy, whichever is lower. If the landlord rents the
    13  premises at fair market value or at the rate agreed to during  the  term
    14  of  the tenancy, the new tenant's lease shall, once in effect, terminate
    15  the previous tenant's lease and mitigate damages  otherwise  recoverable
    16  against  the previous tenant because of such tenant's vacating the prem-
    17  ises. The burden of proof shall be  on  the  party  seeking  to  recover
    18  damages.  Any  provision  in  a  lease that exempts a landlord's duty to
    19  mitigate damages under this section shall be void as contrary to  public
    20  policy.
    21    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.


         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13512-01-9