Under New York Real Property Law § 230, tenants have the right to form tenant associations and hold tenant meetings on or in the property where they live.
Tenants can form organizations for safe and affordable housing. Tenant rights to organize include:
- Tenants can contact other tenants and give out information about organizing activities.
- Non-tenants, such as organizers and lawyers, are allowed to join tenant organizing activities on private property if they are invited.
- Tenant organizers can ask tenants for contact information to address problems such as repairs or the rent setting policies.
- Tenants can have meetings in common areas of a building or property. They can set up meeting items like table and chairs.
- Landlords are not allowed to interfere with the right of a tenant to start or be in an organization that fights for tenant rights.
Landlords and police must follow the law:
- Landlords must not harass or punish tenants for their right to organize.
- It is against the law for landlords to use force or try to break up tenant meetings. The police can enforce the law to protect tenants’ rights.
- Law enforcement can’t break up tenant organizer meetings in a building, unless it’s not peaceful.
- Law enforcement can’t decide a meeting is a fire hazard or other problem outside their expertise.
In a memo sent to law enforcement agencies across the state, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) provided guidance about responding to landlords, superintendents, or other individuals that make complaints about tenants or their invited guests organizing or meeting within a building or its common grounds. The Attorney General warns law enforcement to be cautious to avoid unintentionally being used by landlords to violate the rights of tenants to organize and meet.
“As New Yorkers grapple with unprecedented rent increases and an increasingly difficult rental market, we are seeing some landlords use concerning tactics,” said the Attorney General. “We have seen reports of landlords calling the police on tenants for gathering and organizing in their own buildings — actions that are well within the parameters of the law. Every tenant should feel comfortable exercising their right to organize without fear of legal retaliation. Landlords cannot use our law enforcement officers as tools to bully and threaten tenants, and my office will work to ensure that local sheriffs and law enforcement departments understand the rights of tenants across the state.”
In a memo, the Attorney General maintains that if law enforcement is called to disperse a tenant meeting or to remove people that are organizing, the responding officers must have a good understanding of Real Property Law § 230 and the protections it provides to tenants and their representatives.
The NY Attorney General provided the following reminders regarding tenant organizing:
- Landlords are prohibited from interfering with the right of a tenant to form, join, or participate in the lawful activities of any organization formed to protect the rights of tenants.
- Landlords must not harass, punish, or penalize any tenant for exercising the right to organize.
- Law enforcement, when encountering a meeting of tenants and organizers in a building, may not disperse the meeting unless it violates narrow prohibitions outlined in the law, such as when the activities are not peaceful.
- Tenants are permitted to reach out to other tenants and widely distribute information concerning organizing activities.
- Non-tenants, such as organizers and attorneys, are allowed to conduct tenant organizing activities on private property at the request of a tenant residing at that property.
- Such tenant organizers are also permitted to ask tenants for contact information to address issues in the building which may relate to such issues as repairs or the landlord’s rent setting policies.
- Tenant meetings in common areas of a building or property are permitted by law. Items necessary for the meeting such as a table and chairs may be placed in common areas for the meeting.
- Law enforcement should not make determinations concerning whether a meeting is a fire hazard or other determinations outside their expertise.
- Landlords who use force or otherwise attempt to disperse lawful tenant meetings may violate penal laws such as Disorderly Conduct, Menacing, Aggravated Harassment, or Assault. Law enforcement should use their discretion in enforcing these, and other appropriate penal laws to preserve the peace when tenants are exercising their rights under the Real Property Law.
Source: https://www.lawhelpny.org/resource/tenants-right-organize
Source: New York State Attorney General
PRESS RELEASE : April 25, 2022
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2022/attorney-general-james-issues-guidance-law-enforcement-protecting-tenants-right