Wednesday, August 12, 2009

New York tenant rights

As a tenant in New York, you have many rights that keep your home safe and your living conditions pleasant. These rights cover everything from being provided adequate heat when the weather is cold, to being allowed to make complaints about your living conditions to proper government authorities without penalty of being evicted by your landlord.

Included in these rights is your right to not be discriminated against when leasing or renewing your lease. This includes any discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, marital status and familiar status. Those in New York City are additionally protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation or immigration status. If you feel that you have been discriminated against based on one of these qualities, you have the right to fight that discrimination.

Your landlord also needs to meet certain basic needs that keep your home livable. All tenants have the right to feel safe in their home, and landlords are meant to prove the bare minimum of basic home security including such features as intercoms and door locks that will keep tenants safe. These crime prevention steps must be made to help protect tenants from any foreseeable criminal harm. Your landlord must also honor a tenant’s rights to privacy and must provide adequate notice before entering a tenant’s home. If a landlord is harassing a tenant, that tenant has a right against harassment and may fight against the landlord if he or she is harassing the tenant or tenants.

Your rights as a tenant in New York entitle you to dispute any action taken by your landlord that you feel infringes on those rights. If your landlord is not providing you with adequate heating or crime protection, for example, you should be sure to bring up your concerns. If these concerns are not resolved, it may be time to take legal action. To find a lawyer in New York to settle any disputes between tenants and landlords, you must look for a lawyer who has ample experience handling tenant disputes and who knows what rights tenants have.

A tenant lawyer in New York will be able to help tenants fight against any infringements on their rights or unlawful evictions carried out by their landlords. If a landlord is attempting to evict a tenant, that tenant has certain rights. For example, a landlord must follow through with eviction proceedings, including filing to have the tenant removed from their property by the court, before they can evict a tenant. This is important to know, and is something many tenants don’t realize when being faced with eviction due to non payment. A tenant lawyer who knows and understands the rights of tenants and how to properly dispute against infringements of those rights is a valuable asset to the New York tenant.

When choosing a tenant lawyer to help settle any disputes regarding a lease or action taken by a landlord, be sure to find one that is knowledgeable and who will fight to make sure that the rights of tenants are protected and enforced. Don’t allow yourself to be discriminated against or to be provided housing that is not up to standards, it is your right as a tenant to use a competent lawyer on your side when fighting for your rights as a tenant.

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