Multiple Dwelling Law

ARTICLE I INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS; DEFINITIONS Section

1. Short title.
2. Legislative finding.
3. Application to cities, towns and villages.
4. Definitions.

S 1. Short title. This chapter shall be known as the "multiple dwelling law."

S 2. Legislative finding. It is hereby declared that intensive occupation of multiple dwelling sites, overcrowding of multiple dwelling rooms, inadequate provision for light and air, and insufficient protection against the defective provision for escape from fire, and improper sanitation of multiple dwellings in certain areas of the state are a menace to the health, safety, morals, welfare, and reasonable comfort of the citizens of the state; and that the establishment and maintenance of proper housing standards requiring sufficient light, air, sanitation and protection from fire hazards are essential to the public welfare. Therefore the provisions hereinafter prescribed are enacted and their necessity in the public interest is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.

S 3. Application to cities, towns and villages. 1. This chapter shall apply to all cities with a population of three hundred twenty-five thousand or more. 2. The legislative body of any other city, town or village may adopt the provisions of this chapter and make the same applicable to dwellings within the limits of such city, town or village by the passage of a local law or ordinance adopting the same; and upon the passage of such local law or ordinance all of the provisions of articles one, two, three, four, five, ten and eleven and such sections or parts of sections of the other articles of this chapter as such local law or ordinance shall enumerate, shall apply to such city, town or village from the date stated in such law or ordinance. 3. Except as herein otherwise specified, every multiple dwelling shall be constructed or maintained in conformity with other applicable laws. 4. a. Any city, town or village may make local laws, ordinances, resolutions or regulations not less restrictive than those provided in this chapter and may provide for their enforcement by legal or equitable actions or proceedings, and prescribe the penalties, sanctions and remedies for violations thereof. In the enforcement and administration of this chapter in a city of three hundred twenty-five thousand or more persons, the penalties, sanctions and remedies enacted by local law may be applied, notwithstanding their inconsistency with this chapter, or the provisions of this chapter. b. In a city of three hundred twenty-five thousand or more persons, such local laws may authorize such actions or proceedings against the owner, lessee of a whole multiple dwelling, agent or other person having control of such dwelling, and any responsible party, or against the dwelling in rem. Such local laws may further authorize (1) that civil penalties may be enforced against the person liable therefor, and that in addition to the methods of enforcement for judgments established in the civil practice law and rules, a lien may be imposed against the premises and the rents therefrom; (2) that such civil penalties may be enforced against the dwelling by the imposition of a lien against the rents therefrom. c. Such local laws may also authorize that all liens upon rents, whether authorized by state or local law, may be satisfied without further judicial proceedings by the collection of rents due or to become due. 5. Whenever a provision of any local law, ordinance, resolution or regulation is more restrictive in a requirement for height, area or use, such local law, ordinance, resolution or regulation shall govern and take precedence over any lesser requirements of this chapter. When, however, the provisions of this chapter impose more restrictive requirements, the provisions of this chapter shall govern. 6. A local law, ordinance, resolution or regulation shall not prohibit in any class A multiple dwelling erected after April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, in compliance with the provisions of this chapter, the use of wood for sleepers, grounds, nailing blocks, underflooring or finish flooring or, within apartments, doors with their assemblies, interior trim and assemblies of exterior windows, interior finish, closet fixtures, kitchen fixtures, shelving, cupboards, cabinets or wardrobes. 7. Except as provided in subdivisions four and five, a local law, ordinance, rule or regulation shall not modify or dispense with any provision of this chapter. 8. Wherever the word "city" occurs in this chapter, it shall be construed as though followed by the words "or town or village to which this chapter is applicable." The words "charter," "ordinance," "resolution," "regulation," "building code," "department of health," "department of water supply," "fire department," "department," "board," "city engineer," "corporation counsel," "city treasury," or "fire limits," shall be construed as if followed by the words "or corresponding authority of any city, town or village to which this chapter is applicable and in which the dwelling or location referred to is situated." 9. Wherever in any statute of the state other than this chapter, or in any local law, ordinance, resolution or regulation, reference is made to the tenement house law in relation to a city to which this chapter is applicable, such reference shall be construed as applying to the provisions of this chapter. If reference be made therein to any section or other part of the tenement house law, such reference shall be construed as applying to the provisions of this chapter relating to the same subject matter as the said section or part. If reference be made therein to a "tenement house," such reference shall be construed as applying to a class A multiple dwelling. 10. Wherever the date April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, shall appear in this chapter such date shall be construed as if followed by the words "or the date when this chapter or any of its provisions became or becomes applicable to any city, town or village outside the City of New York." 11. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the following enumerated articles, sections and subdivisions of sections of this chapter shall not apply to the construction or alteration of multiple dwellings for which an application for a permit is made to the department after December sixth, nineteen hundred sixty-nine in a city having a population of one million or more which adopts or has adopted local laws, ordinances, resolutions or regulations providing protection from fire hazards and making provision for escape from fire in the construction and alteration of multiple dwellings and in other respects as protective as local law seventy-six of the laws of the city of New York for nineteen hundred sixty-eight and covering the same subject matter as the following: subdivisions twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty-five-c, thirty-six and thirty-nine of section four, subdivision three of section twenty-eight, sections thirty-six, thirty-seven, fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-five, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-seven, subdivisions one, two, four and five of section seventy-five, article four, article five, article five-A, article six and article seven-B; except that after December sixth, nineteen hundred sixty-nine where a multiple dwelling erected prior to December sixth, nineteen hundred sixty-nine is altered, or a building erected prior to December sixth, nineteen hundred sixty-nine is converted to a multiple dwelling pursuant to a permit applied for to the department having jurisdiction, the foregoing articles, sections and subdivisions of sections shall remain applicable where a local law of such city authorizes such alteration or conversion to be made, at the option of the owner, either in accordance with the requirements of the building law and regulations in effect in such city prior to December sixth, nineteen hundred sixty-eight or the requirements of the building law and regulations in effect after such date, and the owner elects to comply with the requirements of the building law and regulations in effect prior to December sixth, nineteen hundred sixty-eight.

S 4. Definitions. Certain words and terms when used in this chapter, unless the context or subject matter requires otherwise, are defined as follows: 1. Wherever the word or words "occupied," "is occupied," "used" or "is used" appear, such word or words shall be construed as if followed by the words "or is intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied." 2. The word "shall" is always mandatory. 3. The term "department" shall mean the department, bureau, division or other agency charged with the enforcement of this chapter. 4. A "dwelling" is any building or structure or portion thereof which is occupied in whole or in part as the home, residence or sleeping place of one or more human beings. 5. A "family" is either a person occupying a dwelling and maintaining a household, with not more than four boarders, roomers or lodgers, or two or more persons occupying a dwelling, living together and maintaining a common household, with not more than four boarders, roomers or lodgers. A "boarder," "roomer" or "lodger" residing with a family shall mean a person living within the household who pays a consideration for such residence and does not occupy such space within the household as an incident of employment therein. 6. A "private dwelling" is any building or structure designed and occupied exclusively for residence purposes by not more than two families. A building designed for and occupied exclusively by one family is a "single-family private dwelling." A building designed for and occupied exclusively by two families is a "two-family private dwelling." Private dwellings shall also be deemed to include a series of one-family or two-family dwelling units each of which faces or is accessible to a legal street or public thoroughfare provided that each such dwelling unit is equipped as a separate dwelling unit with all essential services, and also provided that each such unit is arranged so that it may be approved as a legal one-family or two-family dwelling. 7. A "multiple dwelling" is a dwelling which is either rented, leased, let or hired out, to be occupied, or is occupied as the residence or home of three or more families living independently of each other. On and after July first, nineteen hundred fifty-five, a "multiple dwelling" shall also include residential quarters for members or personnel of any hospital staff which are not located in any building used primarily for hospital use provided, however, that any building which was erected, altered or converted prior to July first, nineteen hundred fifty-five, to be occupied by such members or personnel or is so occupied on such date shall not be subject to the requirements of this chapter only so long as it continues to be so occupied provided there are local laws applicable to such building and such building is in compliance with such local laws. A "multiple dwelling" shall not be deemed to include a hospital, convent, monastery, asylum or public institution, or a fireproof building used wholly for commercial purposes except for not more than one janitor`s apartment and not more than one penthouse occupied by not more than two families. For the purposes of this chapter "multiple dwellings" are divided into two classes: "class A" and "class B." 8. a. A "class A" multiple dwelling is a multiple dwelling which is occupied, as a rule, for permanent residence purposes. This class shall include tenements, flat houses, maisonette apartments, apartment houses, apartment hotels, bachelor apartments, studio apartments, duplex apartments, kitchenette apartments, garden-type maisonette dwelling projects, and all other multiple dwellings except class B multiple dwellings. b. A "garden-type maisonette dwelling project" is a series of attached, detached or semi-detached dwelling units which are provided as a group collectively with all essential services such as, but not limited to, water supply and house sewers, and which units are located on a site or plot not less than twenty thousand square feet in area under common ownership and erected under plans filed with the department on or after April eighteenth, nineteen hundred fifty-four, and which units together and in their aggregate are arranged or designed to provide three or more apartments. 9. A "class B" multiple dwelling is a multiple dwelling which is occupied, as a rule transiently, as the more or less temporary abode of individuals or families who are lodged with or without meals. This class shall include hotels, lodging houses, rooming houses, boarding houses, boarding schools, furnished room houses, lodgings, club houses, college and school dormitories and dwellings designed as private dwellings but occupied by one or two families with five or more transient boarders, roomers or lodgers in one household. 10. A "converted dwelling" is a dwelling (a) erected before April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, to be occupied by one or two families living independently of each other and subsequently occupied as a multiple dwelling, or (b) a dwelling three stories or less in height erected after April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, to be occupied by one or two families living independently of each other and subsequently occupied by not more than three families in all, with a maximum occupancy of two families on each floor in a two story building and one family on each floor in a three story building, in compliance with the provisions of article six of this chapter, including section one hundred seventy-a of said article. A converted dwelling occupied as a class A multiple dwelling is a class A converted dwelling; every other converted dwelling is a class B converted dwelling. 11. A "tenement" is any building or structure or any portion thereof, erected before April eighteenth, nineteen hundred twenty-nine, which is occupied, wholly or in part, as the residence of three families or more living independently of each other and doing their cooking upon the premises, and includes apartment houses, flat houses and all other houses so erected and occupied, except that a tenement shall not be deemed to include any converted dwelling. An "old-law tenement" is a tenement existing before April twelfth, nineteen hundred one, and re