Ordinance amending the Administrative Code regarding owner and relative move-in (“OMI”) evictions to require a landlord seeking to recover possession of a unit for an OMI to provide the tenant with an approved form to advise the Rent Board of address changes; clarify the evidentiary standard for finding that an OMI was performed in good faith; require a landlord to file documentation with the Rent Board regarding the status of the OMI, with a penalty for not filing such documentation, and requiring the Rent Board to transmit a random sampling of such documentation to the District Attorney; extend from three to five years the time period after an OMI during which a landlord who intends to re-rent the unit must first offer the unit to the displaced tenant; and authorize a tenant who has been charged excess rent within five years after an OMI to sue for treble damages; and, as to matters not limited to OMI evictions, provide that a tenant waiver of rights in a buyout agreement is not enforceable if the buyout is not timely filed with the Rent Board; extend from one to three years the statute of limitations for wrongful eviction claims; authorize interested non-profit organizations to sue for wrongful eviction and collection of excess rent; and making clarifying changes.

Committee

Land Use and Transportation Committee

Introduced

June 20, 2017

Passed

April 10, 2018