A2611 • 2025

Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease

Housing

Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor: Steven Otis
Last action: 2026-05-21
Official status: Assembly Floor Calendar
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease

Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease.

What This Bill Does

Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease.

Limits and Unknowns

This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

2026-05-21 Assembly
AMENDED ON THIRD READING 2611A
2026-01-07 Senate
DIED IN SENATE
2026-01-07 Senate
RETURNED TO ASSEMBLY
2026-01-07 Assembly
ORDERED TO THIRD READING CAL.95
2025-06-10 Assembly
PASSED ASSEMBLY
2025-06-10 Assembly
DELIVERED TO SENATE
2025-06-10 Senate
REFERRED TO RULES
2025-06-09 Assembly
REPORTED
2025-06-09 Assembly
RULES REPORT CAL.488
2025-06-09 Assembly
ORDERED TO THIRD READING RULES CAL.488
2025-05-20 Assembly
REPORTED REFERRED TO RULES
2025-01-21 Assembly
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY

Official Summary Text

Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease
Requires landlords to mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in violation of the terms of the lease.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          2611

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                                  I N  A S S E M B L Y

                                    January 21, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of A. OTIS, SEAWRIGHT, SIMON, STIRPE, SAYEGH -- read
          once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary

        AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation  to  requiring  land-
          lords  to  mitigate damages when commercial tenants vacate premises in
          violation of the terms of the lease

          THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
        BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

     1    Section 1. Section 227-e of the real property law, as added by section
     2  4  of  part  M  of chapter 36 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    § 227-e. Landlord duty to mitigate damages. In  any  lease  or  rental
     5  agreement,  excluding any real estate purchase contract defined in para-
     6  graphs (a), (c) and (d) of subdivision  four  of  section  four  hundred
     7  sixty-one  of  this  chapter,  [covering  premises occupied for dwelling
     8  purposes,] if a tenant vacates a premises in violation of the  terms  of
     9  the  lease, the landlord shall, in good faith and according to the land-
    10  lord's resources and abilities, take reasonable and customary actions to
    11  rent the premises at fair market value or at the rate agreed  to  during
    12  the  term  of the tenancy, whichever is lower. If the landlord rents the
    13  premises at fair market value or at the rate agreed to during  the  term
    14  of  the tenancy, the new tenant's lease shall, once in effect, terminate
    15  the previous tenant's lease and mitigate damages  otherwise  recoverable
    16  against  the previous tenant because of such tenant's vacating the prem-
    17  ises. The burden of proof shall be  on  the  party  seeking  to  recover
    18  damages.  Any  provision  in  a  lease that exempts a landlord's duty to
    19  mitigate damages under this section shall be void as contrary to  public
    20  policy.
    21    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.


         EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01676-01-5