On September 2, 2021, Governor Hochul signed into law new legislation related to residential eviction and foreclosure protections (L 2021, ch 417 [Act]). The Act continues to provide relief to respondents and defendants in residential eviction proceedings and foreclosure actions in New York. The Act publishes a hardship declaration form to be used by tenant respondents in residential eviction matters and defendant mortgagors in residential foreclosure actions in reporting financial hardship during or due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the Act, residential eviction proceedings are stayed until at least January 15, 2022, where a tenant respondent submits a completed hardship declaration. The Act sets forth the legislative findings and intent for extending the stay on residential evictions including that
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"[t]he legislature is especially cognizant of the ongoing risks posed by residential evictions stemming from non-payment of rent during the height of the public health emergency, and its recovery period, such as the potential to exacerbate the resurgence of COVID-19, the damage significant numbers of evictions would cause to the state's economic recovery, and the deleterious social and public health effects of homelessness and housing instability" (Act § 2).