Recently we wrote about a new law that went into effect December 21, 2021 which prohibits a landlord from including any legal fees on any correspondence to, or ledger of, a tenant unless awarded pursuant to a court order. We further advised that by its clear wording, cooperatives and its shareholders improperly got swept into the new law’s overly expensive language. Governor Hochul has just signed Senate Bill 7801 which amends that law and which expressly exempts shareholders of cooperatives from the provisions of the new law prohibiting legal fees in connection with the operation or rental of a residential unit. However, a shareholder of a co-op that rents out their unit remains prohibited from charging their respective tenants or subtenants legal fees without a court order.

Daniels Norelli Cecere & Tavel, P.C. will be following case law developments on the original law that went into effect on December 21, 2021 to see exactly how the various ambiguous terms we wrote about start to get interpreted by the Courts.