Sex Offender Neighbor Violates Lease

Landlord and Tenant Law

Posted Aug 21, 2007, 09:29 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A New York judge has ruled an upstate couple can terminate their lease without penalty because a sex offender moved in next door.

Watertown City Court Judge James C. Harberson Jr. said the couple was entitled to break the lease, citing a New York law that bars conditions that are detrimental to tenant safety, the New York Law Journal reports (sub. req.)

The neighbor was designated as a level 3 sex offender, considered to be at the highest risk of committing future sex crimes. The offender has a right to live in the apartment under New York law, the judge said in his ruling.

But the tenants who lived next door, Christopher and Melissa Knudsen, also have rights, he said. The couple signed a one-year lease entitling them to "peacefully and quietly" enjoy their apartment. The document also specified that the Knudsens were responsible for rent if they left the premises before expiration of the lease.

Harberson said the couple should not have to exercise "a constant vigilance” to protect their three young girls. A contrary ruling, he said, would “would place unreasonable pressure on the tenant and would completely destroy the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of the apartment expressly covenanted by the lease."

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