Much Ado About Nothing?

It may start that way, but Retaliation Law lets tenants cause trouble

If you're a residential landlord, you probably think you have enough to worry about.

And if you're based in New York City, chances are you know the Housing Code by heart. But have you ever encountered the Landlord Retaliation Law and do you know how to protect yourself from it?

You should. This is a law that can turn a disagreement over, say, a new light bulb into a lengthy and exhausting legal adventure, as it did in the case of Beverly Zimmerman v. Mayfair York LLC.

At first glance, the Landlord Retaliation Law is pretty simple: A landlord is not permitted to retaliate against a tenant, if the tenant makes good faith complaints concerning the landlord to a government agency.

But, there's always a catch. Apparently, the law creates a presumption that the landlord acted in retaliation if he/she tries to evict the tenant within six months of the complaint. Granted, the presumption is rebuttable, but proving that you acted in good faith isn't easy.

In the case of Mayfair York, the landlord's lack of caution cost the company a lump sum of money. Apparently, Beverly Zimmerman, one of the tenants at Mayfair York's building at 36 Gramercy Park East, made complaints to the city's Department of Housing Preservation concerning the condition of her apartment. According to Edward Baer, the attorney who eventually represented Mayfair in court, her complaints were almost laughable. "She said that the apartment needed painting. And there was a complaint that the window didn't close properly. I don't even think she called the landlord before she called the Housing department. Those were very minor complaints."

Nevertheless, the case was investigated by a government agency and the landlord was found not guilty of violating the housing laws. However, during the investigation process it was discovered that someone installed new windows in an apartment on the 12th floor, where Ms. Zimmerman resided -- an action specifically prohibited by the conditions of her lease. Within a few weeks, the landlord sent Ms. Zimmerman an eviction notice.

The lawyers familiar with the vase seem to think that the eviction notice was a result of a misunderstanding, and did not have anything to do with retaliation motives. "The City inspector, simply did not do his job properly by failing to identify the apartment in which the windows were installed," said Edward Schiff, an attorney at Hartman & Craven LLP. "He identified the apartment as being on the 12th floor, and the landlord assumed it was Beverly Zimmerman because her previous complaints involved faulty window locks."

"The landlord's actions had nothing to do with the minor complaints the tenant had filed," Baer insists. "The landlord went to see what was wrong with the windows, and found that new ones were installed."

The case went to court, and since it was established that Zimmerman had nothing to do with the installation of the windows, the Landlord Retaliation Law went into effect. Mayfair York LLC was forced to agree on a settlement. "I am not sure that Ms. Zimmerman really believed that the landlord was acting out of retaliation," Baer claims, "but since the statute allows you to claim retaliation if the eviction notice is given out within six months of the complaint, I think she just used it as a means to sue her landlord."

Morris Herman, a manager at Mayfair York LLC, was furious with the court's verdict. "There was no confusion at all about who put in the windows -- Ms. Zimmerman put them in. When her complaint was being investigated, we Went into her apartment and noticed that there were relatively new windows in her apartment. We never replaced them, and the managing agent had never done it. She simply got a sympathetic judge."

In general, Herman has a very pessimistic view of the landlords' legal situation at this point in time: "The judges in most of New York City's courts are liberals, who were appointed by previous administrations. They are tenant-oriented, and it just doesn't matter what you do about it. In every case, they will say 'It's in the interest of the law to protect the tenant'. The reasoning behind this is patently absurd."

When asked why Ms. Zimmerman would start a retaliation case against Mayfair, Herman just shrugs. "What do you expect? It was her defense against eviction. I am surprised she didn't accuse us of starting one of the military conflicts overseas.

Could something be done to prevent landlords from finding themselves in the same situation as Mayfair? "There are very few cases concerning this law because the landlords are very sophisticated now, and they are pretty good at avoiding tricky situations," said Schiff. "But there is one thing the landlord should keep in mind -- in order for the tenant to win the, case, it has to be proven that the landlord was acting in bad faith. The only exception to this is if six months hadn't passed -- then, there is a presumption by law that you were acting out of retaliation. The landlord has to be careful not to make any claims that do not have sufficient evidence to back them up. "In this case, the landlord simply couldn't offer any proof, so the court held that the presumption had to stand."

"It's very hard to' protect yourself against lawsuits like that," Baer added. "The best way the landlord can do that is by making sure that there is nothing going on in the apartment that will have a violation written for it."