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New York Real Estate Law ReporterColumns & DepartmentsLandlord Tenant LawLitigation

Landlord & Tenant

By ssalkin
Unique Circumstances Require Rent Recomputation Matter of Migliaccio v. New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR)

City Human Rights Law Requires Landlord to Convert Window Into Wheelchair Accessible Entrance

Matter of Marine Holdings, LLC v. New York City Commission on Human Rights

Comment

State and federal law explicitly impose costs of modifications to apartments on the disabled tenant requesting the changes. The New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) states that “[i]t shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for the owner … [t]o refuse to permit, at the expense of a person with a disability, reasonable modifications of existing premises.” N.Y. Exec. Law §296.18(1) (McKinney). The Fair Housing Act (FHA) embodies similar language that clearly identifies the tenant's responsibility. 42 U.S.C. §12182(b)(2)(A)(iii). By contrast, the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) does not specify who bears the costs of modification. Rather, the statute imposes a balancing test and provides four factors to determine whether the landlord would face an “undue burden,” therefore relieving him of modification expenses. N.Y. ADMIN. CODE tit. 8, ch. 1, §8-102(18). While New York courts have not analyzed the meaning of burden in great detail, the Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) has interpreted the NYCHRL to impose the responsibility primarily on housing providers. Once the Commission establishes that the tenant's proposed modification is both reasonable and necessary, the Commission requires the landlord to make the modification at its own cost so long as the requested modification is neither financially burdensome nor architecturally infeasible. The Commission has required the landlord to make the modifications even when the landlord proposed, and the tenant rejected, reasonable alternatives. For instance, in , 2010 WL 8625897, the court required landlord to make a front entrance of the building accessible to the disabled tenant even though the landlord had already made a side entrance accessible. at 2. And in 2012 WL 1657556, at 10, the Commission overturned an ALJ's determination and required landlord to convert a window into a door to accommodate a disabled tenant, despite questions about the effect the conversion would have on the building's structural integrity, and despite landlord's offer to relocate the disabled tenant to an apartment elsewhere in the complex.

“As Is” Clause Does Not Bar Claim That Landlord Intentionally Caused Defective Conditions 

New WTC Retail Owner LLC v. Pachanga, Inc.

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