Locke Lord QuickStudy: New York State Senate Extends ‎Foreclosure and Eviction Moratorium from August 31, ‎‎2021 ‎until January 15, 2022‎

In one of her first acts as Governor of New York, newly appointed Governor Kathy Hochul ‎called for a “Special” legislative session on September 1, 2021, to extend the moratorium on ‎foreclosure and eviction actions provided in the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure ‎Prevention Act of 2020 (S.9114/A.11181) (the “Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act”) until ‎January 15, 2022. Originally signed into law by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in December ‎‎2020, the Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act prevented all residential evictions and ‎foreclosure proceedings from going forward, and halted related credit discrimination and ‎negative credit reporting due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar to the previous ‎extensions passed by the NY State Senate, the bill was sponsored by Brian Kavanagh (D-26th ‎District).‎

The bill provided several reasons for an extension including “the need for continued statutory ‎protections and other emergency public health measures …demonstrated by rates of transmission ‎in the state… cases have risen ten-fold, and 95 percent of the sequenced recent positives in New ‎York State were the Delta variant.”‎

The bill also recognized the United States Supreme Court’s recent ruling which struck down ‎New York’s self-certification financial hardship. Previous versions of the bill allowed tenants ‎facing eviction and homeowners in foreclosure to self-certify their own financial hardship with ‎no mechanism in place to challenge the hardship claim. As amended, the bill permits a landlord or ‎mortgage lender to request a hearing on the validity of a tenant’s or homeowner’s hardship ‎submission.  ‎

The bill continues to provide protection to homeowners facing foreclosure “provided the owner ‎or mortgagor… owns ten or fewer dwelling units whether directly or indirectly until January 15, ‎‎2022.”  So long as the homeowner provides a hardship declaration, any foreclosure action will be ‎stayed until January 15, 2022.  In cases where the judgment of foreclosure has been entered, if ‎the homeowner signs a hardship declaration any foreclosure sale will be stayed until the court can ‎hold a conference.