Seward seaport record., 1951-08-24
Eviction Safeguards Under The
 New Rent Law

had i m D o r t n new safeguards against unjust eviction with the announcement of new regulations on the subject by MT. Attilio Ban- dettini, Area Director of the Office of Rent StabiliZation.
 Most important are those insur- ing military families from capri ciouS eviction from company hous- ing, giving tenants in newly form ed cooperatively-own apartment houses additional protection from being forced to purchase their units, and additional securities that if landlord evicts on the ground he needs the property to shelter himself or his immediate family (the claim of self-occupancy) he is telling the truth.
 The new regulations, long con- sidered, come On the heels of an official declaration by Congress that the tenant needs more protec- ton. Congress so expressed itself this week when it wrote into the new Housing and Rent Law the right of tenants to sue for damages when they are evicted unlawfully. Abuse of the claim of self-occu- pancy might be an example of such an unlawful eviction. Another might be a landlords claim that he must evict tenant in order to remodel the building when he has no intention of doing so.
 Tn all such cases. the tenant or the Office of Rent Stabilization may now sue the landlord for treble damages. The Office of Rent Stabilization may also obtain an injunction against the landlords to prevent further violations.
 The new ORS regulations spell out the three new projections set up in the regulations like this:
 l. Suppose an employe of a com pany which furnishes housing at a comparatively low figure as part of the wage compensation (com- pany housing) is mustered into military service in another section, then his family could ordinarily not be evicted from this housing even though the SerViCeman is no longer a company emplOye. An eX- ception would be if the company landlord could prove that the ac- commodations were needed for key employe who could not be Ob- tained or retained unless the par ticular h ousing accommodations were furnished him.
 2. Purchasers in cooperative as- sociations formed after August 1 to buy apartment houses, now lose their privilege of evicting tenants who have refused to Duy and so become owners of their rental units as cooperative members. In the past, eviction of tenants by purchasers became legal once the number of units occupied by the cooperative members recrhed 65 per cent in the apartment house, This stand was taken because it has proved many tenants who could hardly afford the additional financial burdens of home owner ship were nevertheless forced to buy to escape eviction.
 In justice to the owners, how ever, two exceptions have to be made to this rule, MT. Bandettini said. The restriction is not retro active to cooperative associations formed before August l, and the protection applies only to tenants who were in occupancy at the time of the purchase. If coopera- tive owner rents his unit tempor- arily, he may evict his own tenant at any time subj ect to the re- strictions applicable to other prop critics.
 3. Landlords who use the right of self-occupancy now are required to state this their reason in detail. If they say for example that they must have housing at once for a newly married son and daughter in-law they must furnish sufficient
 IT A> .tz