In the last several years, my landlord has taken a number of tenants to Housing Court
in attempts to vacate and deregulate apartments. These are former Mitchell Lama tenants
now under Rent Stabilization.
In the Housing Court proceedings, there have been numerous instances of outright lying
by the landlord's employees and/or attorneys. Papers filed in the actions contained outright
lies that were clearly observable (e.g., sworn affidavits attesting to the content of letters that
had not yet been written as of the date of the affidavit.)
In a conference with a rather well-known Tenant/Landlord attorney, I mentioned the lying and
asked about perjury. The attorney laughed, stating that "everyone lies in Housing Court."
The attorney also said that in over 18 years of practice, they had never seen a perjury
prosecution from a Housing Court proceeding.
I told this story to a highly placed official in the Court System, and was informed that
lying in Housing Court, if it is proven, is punishable as perjury. They said that there have been
referrals for perjury made to the District Attorney for prosection, but the Office of the
District Attorney places a low priority on Housing Court issues.
Since perjury with impunity is apparently permissible in Housing Court, it seems to me
that no justice can be found there, whether it be for a landlord or a tenant.
Perhaps it's time to put some pressure on the District Attorney to do his job. I'm sure that a
few prosecutions for perjury in Housing Court would go a long way toward cleaning up many
of the abuses of the system that are going on. It would certainly make people think twice
before engaging in baseless proceedings.
When you consider that people's homes can be at stake, it should not be a "low priority."