Rental Permits

Dating back several years ago many of the five eastern towns of Long Island and many of the incorporated Villages began to require that a Landlord file for and receive a rental permit, from the presiding Town or Village, prior to renting residential real property.  At the inception of the law many Landlords chose to ignore the law and rent without permits without significant ramifications.  Then, as time went on, and as cases started coming before the local justice courts regarding non-payments of rent or “hold overs”, in defending a non-payment proceeding, informed Tenants would claim that no back rent can be claimed by the Landlord due to the failure of the Landlord to have a rental permit, and they were correct.  At that time, the Courts would not allow a Landlord to collect any back rent due or current rent for use and occupancy after the time of the breach, however it would grant he Landlord a Warrant of Eviction, if appropriate, and sometimes would notify the presiding code enforcement agency of the violation of the rental permit law.  Well the times have changed dramatically since then.

In several recent Supreme Court cases in Suffolk County, the courts have held that not only does a Landlord not have a claim for rent arrears, or a claim for reasonable use and occupancy for the tenancy, if there was no rental permit, the Court has further held that a Tenant make seek and recover back rent paid to a landlord for leases and tenancies that already occurred, even when the Tenant enjoyed the use and occupancy of the premises for the entire duration of the lease.  There are now several cases pending where Tenants are suing Landlords for reimbursement of rents paid several years ago, based upon the Landlord’s failure to have had a rental permit.  Under the current case law there is a substantial likelihood that these cases will be ruled in favor of the Tenants.  While I am quite confident that this seemingly unfair and overly harsh ruling will not stand up to appeal, that is the current law in effect in the Second Department, which includes the five eastern towns of Long Island.