Written by Elizabeth Hurley, Legal Director at The Waterfront Project
Sam, our Staff Attorney at The Waterfront Project, was able to get a landlord to dismiss a non-payment of rent case the landlord had filed against our client for arrears that were incurred between March and August 2021, a period protected under the Stack Bill. The landlord attempted to apply our client’s current rent payments to these pandemic arrears and claim that the arrears were incurred outside of the protected period. When Sam identified their misapplication of payments, the landlord next claimed that our client was not eligible for the protection of the Stack Bill because she had failed to file an income self-certification form, a form which was available to tenants to complete during the state of emergency, but which has since been removed from public websites. Sam successfully argued to the landlord’s attorney that the requirement of an income self-certification only applied where the tenant sought to extend the Stack Bill protections to the months of August through December 2021. Because our client’s arrears predated August 2021, they fell squarely within the first protected period and did not require an income self-certification. The landlord filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal.
Congrats, Sam!
Liz
