ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday he’s granting an extension on the rent evictions moratorium due to COVID-19.
The moratorium was set to expire in June, but it’s now extended until August 20. Therefore, landlords cannot kick tenants out of their unit if they’re unable to pay rent due to the coronavirus.
“People are literally worried about being able to pay rent. You don’t work for two months and that rent bill keeps coming in,” he said.
In order to help commercial and residential renters, the moratorium has been extended another 60 days.
“We’re going to take additional steps of banning any late payment fees because a person couldn’t pay the rent during this period of time. Also, allowing people to use the security deposit as a payment and they can repay it over a prolonged period of time,” the Governor said.
Some say the efforts don’t go far enough. Senator Mike Gianaris tweeted that the eviction moratorium is a “band-aid.” And he has made calls to cancel rent.
Meanwhile, the New York Capital Region Apartment Association / Under One Roof Coalition, which represents landlords, says small business property owners will be “crippled by any more loss of rental income, putting some out of business.” They also say, “Allowing rent payment defaults to continue… will result in the property owners inability to pay their building expenses… putting the integrity of their buildings and neighborhoods at risk, and ultimately hurting their residents.”
Additionally, they’re urging the Governor to “replace the rents lost to property owners.”
“We’re working on relief from the banks for the landlords also. And there are programs that the federal government is doing, the state is doing, to make sure those banks also get relief so they don’t have to do any foreclosures, and we stopped the foreclosures on the landlords,” the Governor said.
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