Public Housing Tenant's Conduct Didn't Warrant Eviction
LVT Number: #30952
Landlord Tuckahoe Housing Authority (THA) sent public housing tenant a lease termination notice, then held a grievance hearing at tenant's request. THA ruled that tenant had violated her lease, and terminated the tenancy.
Tenant filed an Article 78 court appeal, claiming that THA's decision wasn't supported by substantial evidence and that the penalty was disproportionate to the claimed offenses. THA claimed that tenant failed to pay her rent on time, spoke in an abusive or threatening manner to THA staff, and refused to allow an exterminator access to her apartment to treat a bedbug condition.
After review of the facts in the record, the court ruled for tenant, finding THA's penalty so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness and therefore an abuse of discretion. In this case, although tenant made late rent payments during the period in question, she eventually paid all of the rent due as well as accrued fees. The amount of tenant's rent fluctuated monthly during that time, with little advance notice. So, for example, her December 2015 rent was almost three times as much as her September 2015 rent. Tenant also missed some work during the period in question due to surgery.
Two isolated incidents concerning the exterminator and the offensive phone conversation also weren't enough to warrant eviction. Tenant admitted the exterminator for the first visit but wasn't prepared for the second visit. This wasn't an outright refusal to permit extermination services. Tenant also was rude on the phone to a THA employee, but the employee wasn't frightened and didn't think there was a genuine threat of violence.
Given the facts, the court found that the THA penalty imposed was disproportionate to tenant's misconduct or risk of harm to THA or the public. The case was sent back to THA to come up with a lesser penalty.
Jacobs v. Tuckahoe Housing Authority: Index No. 2018-00887, 2020 NY Slip Op 04392 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; 8/5/20; Mastro, JP, Duffy [dissenting], Barros, Nelson, JJ)