TRO Pauses Controversial DOS Interpretation of New Rental Law

On Monday, February 10, a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court in Albany County issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) to put on hold implementation of the Department of State’s (DOS) interpretation of the statewide Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) as it relates to the payment of brokers’ fees in response to a lawsuit filed from real estate industry groups.

The TRO offers landlords optimism that the prior practice of landlords’ agents collecting real estate commissions from tenants will continue and survive the enactment of the HSTPA.

Of course, it remains to be seen how the Court will ultimately rule on this issue, but for now landlords and agents can continue to do business as they did prior to the DOS interpretation, and the industry has temporarily avoided the apocalyptic impact that the change would have otherwise created.