New York has recently promulgated a law that gives domestic violence victims one less thing to worry about. Although the social, mental and physical impacts of domestic violence cases are ubiquitious, many are still oblivious to the fact that there are huge financial and economical burdens imposed upon victims as well. Not to mention, one not so obvious forms of domestic violence is withholding or controlling the finances, depriving the victim of getting or providing for their most basic needs. Particularly, many victims have little or no means to provide for their living expenses, therefore relying solely on their aggressor for such support. So when that victim wants to get out of their current living situation, either for financial reasons or safety reasons, they are very often forced to stay.

In New York, many residential leases rarely give tenants the freedom to voluntarily extricate themselves from the legal obligations of the lease without consequences. New York law prohibits a tenant from “breaking” a lease except in rare circumstances. For instance, a tenant can not leave an apartment during the middle of a leasehold because he or she does not feel the neighborhood is safe. If he or she chooses to leave the apartment, there is the strong possibility of facing lawsuits, bigger finacial burdens and a blemish on their credit history. However, if that same tenant chooses to leave because the apartment itself is unsafe or uninhabitable, then he or she may have a legitimate defense for breaking the lease if the landlord commences a proceeding in Housing Court. In many cases, victims of domestic violence have been forced to continue to live in perpetual danger because of these very probable consequences. Alternatively, they have no choice but to abandon the apartment in an effort to relocate to a safer place, which makes them vulnerable to litigation brought by the landlord.

Well as of August 2, 2007 the new law comes into effect.

Chapter 73 of the Laws of 2007 amends the Real Property Law by adding a
new §227-c, which provides that, as to any lease or rental agreement
covering premises occupied for dwelling purposes, a lessee or tenant for
whose benefit an order of protection has been issued shall be permitted
to terminate such lease or rental agreement, and quit and surrender
possession of the premises and land and be released from any liability
to pay rent or other payments for the time subsequent to the date of
termination of such lease.

The lessee or tenant may, on ten days’ notice to the lessor or owner of
the premises, seek an order of the court that issued the order of
protection authorizing such lessee or tenant to terminate the lease or
rental agreement. The lessor or owner shall be afforded an opportunity
to be heard by the court and express opposition to the issuance of a
termination order. The court shall issue such order only if the lessee
or tenant establishes that: (i) there continues to exist a substantial
risk of physical or emotional harm to such person or such person’s child
from the party covered by the order of protection if the parties remain
in the premises, and that relocation will substantially reduce such
risk; (ii) the lessee or tenant attempted to secure the voluntary
consent of the lessor or owner to terminate the lease or rental
agreement and the lessor or owner refused; and (iii) that the lessee or
tenant is acting in good faith.

The court shall condition the granting of the order on, inter alia, the
lessee or tenant’s timely payment of all sums due and delivery of the
premises in accordance with the terms of the lease. Any agreement by a
lessee or tenant waiving or modifying these rights shall be void as
contrary to public policy.

Another major advance in addressing the many ancillary issues that victims of domestic violence deal with daily.