NY Housing Lawyers Weigh 'Squatting' Crackdown Bill Package

Housing rights attorneys are keeping tabs on a bipartisan bill package aimed at cracking down on squatting in New York, after recent lobbying in Albany.

One proposal would elevate squatting to a criminal misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail, while also giving landlords an extra two weeks to prove, prior to launching an eviction proceeding, that the occupant is trespassing.

Another proposal in the package, filed Tuesday by Sen. Mario Mattera, R-Smithtown, would allow local law enforcement to immediately evict people based on an owner’s submission of a sworn complaint that someone shouldn’t be residing in the property.

This bill is modeled after one that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Wednesday.

Josh Price, owner of the Price Law Firm, and a resident of Mattera’s district, said Thursday: “I believe Sen. Matera’s bill is desperately needed in New York. A basic function of government is to protect property rights. Right now, that is not happening in New York. Sen. Matera’s bill would go a long way towards solving this problem.”

In New York, a landlord must give a 10-day notice to quit to a squatter or licensee who’s been invited to live in the home without the owner’s permission.

“The problem,” Price said, “isn’t so much the 10-day notice you have to give, which is the only real problem on paper. The problem is that the court system is so overburdened, and it takes so long to get a court date and so long for a case to get through the court system. You can have the best lawyer in the world doing everything the lawyer can, but you’re looking at months and months before you get the person out.”

Squatters have been getting big attention in the press after a recent arrest in a New York City murder case.

Queens gets the lion’s share of attention, because that is where it can take at least 80 days to get on the docket for an initial court date, with either side able to postpone for any reason for another six to eight weeks, Price said.

Also, an ABC affiliate recorded a showdown between a Queens property owner and a squatter which led to the owner’s arrest, after she resorted to the self-help measure of changing locks at the property.

But Ellen Davidson, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit, said she believes that viral news reports created a false illusion that squatting is more prevalent than it actually is. It also tugged on people’s frustrations and outrage at squatting, Davidson said.

Along those lines, Davidson said the bill is a solution without a problem, and a radical redesign of landlord tenancy laws that isn’t necessary because in her view squatters don’t have actual rights in New York.

“There’s been a lot of reporting that the law in New York is that, if you break into someone’s house, and you live there for 30 days, you’re a tenant. That’s just false. There’s nothing in New York state law that allows that—and in fact, there are at least two appellate court cases that say that people who do that should be arrested” for trespassing, she said.

Davidson pointed to decades-old case law in Paulino v. Wright and Morello v. City of New York spelling this out.

Davidson adds that the bill aiming to exclude squatters from tenant rights harms tenants with actual leases. She said her reading of the bill is that these tenants face immediate eviction for missing just a single rent payment.

Under that bill, S5979/A6894, the landlord would get 45 days, an increase from 30, to prove illegal occupancy.

In addition, squatting would be classified a Class B misdemeanor. It could lead to three months jail, or a year of probation and a $500 fine, under the proposal by Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz, R-Oyster Bay, and Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, R-Long Island.

Tully Rinckey senior associate Ryan McCall, a proponent of the bill, said he doesn’t believe it’ll result in big numbers of arrests.

But at the same time, McCall said, “I think anytime that you’re seeing people having a criminal penalty as a result of their behavior, instead of a civil penalty, what you’re going to start seeing is people begin to at least take risks to mitigate it.”

And in light of the migrant crisis, McCall said, the bill could discourage those newcomers from illegally infiltrating properties if it means that they could lose their ability to stay in the U.S.

A migrant social media influencer recently gave an instructional video on how to enter unoccupied homes and invoke squatters’ rights.

McCall, who litigates housing court cases in the Albany and Troy areas, said he’s in favor of any law that attempts to weaken squatters’ rights. He said his firm represented a landlord client who engaged in a nearly two-year court battle with a squatter during the pandemic. The squatter was able to prolong the court process, he said, by filing for state emergency rental assistance.

Like Price, McCall said he believes the bill will expedite the process of getting eviction cases in front of judges.

And noting the bipartisan support for the bill package, McCall said he doesn’t suspect the proposals will divide the Legislature, where Democrats hold majorities in both houses.

“New York State is very open about wanting to be known as the state that gives tenants the most rights,” McCall said of the progressive political majority. ”However, I think most people, whether they be Republicans or Democrats, tend to view squatters as not necessarily being tenants, regardless of political ideology. They do tend to view it with skepticism.”