Bronx Councilman Fernando Cabrera introduced a bill in the City Council last week that aims to protect tenants against landlord abuse by informing them of their rights under the law.
If passed, the proposed legislation would require landlords and property owners to post an explicit “Tenants Bill of Rights,” in a public spot on the premises, and to make sure their tenants are aware of the bill, which outlines laws regulating heat and hot water, eviction, subletting and other sources of tenant-landlord conflict.
“I have personally visited buildings where families are living without toilets, seniors are living without heat, and children are living with mold on their walls,” Cabrera said. “The Tenants Bill of Rights are for these very people; people who don’t know what their rights are and who need direction on where to go to get help.”
Recent protests by tenants who say they live in unbearable conditions — like those of the Milbank properties, 10 Bronx buildings that have thousands of violations among them — have put neglectful landlords in the public spotlight.
The bill proposes civic penalties for failure to post and distribute the Bill of Rights, according to a press release.
“This bill does not aim to inform tenants of every right they have, nor does it seek to serve as the only document they consult when they feel that their rights have been violated,” Cabrera said. “But tenants rights needs to be discussed on a larger scale, and this bill seeks to begin that discussion.”
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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I am so glad that our community leaders see that these landlords are the same slumlords of the past,. Nothing has changed, it has gotten worst. They get rents increases every time they put in for one and not one of them has to show any type of documents or records to show proof they should get these increases. The city can put together so called committees for unnecessary reason, their should be one to look over every landlords records before we as tenants have to pay more rent. Everything in this city has gone up sky high except for paychecks. It would be cost efficient if city officials taught tenants how to take the rents occured and take over their buildings and to help people stay in their home than for them to be homeless, The shelters and hotels cost more or just as much as an apatment,.I find it amazing as well immigrants can open up 2 deli on each blk , the same people(ck 180th st from east to west) but no one will put housing in our communities to help the situation. They all take but don;t give