1. No landlord of a residential premises shall refuse to rent or offer a lease to a potential tenant on the basis that the potential tenant was involved in a past or pending landlord-tenant action or summary proceeding under article seven of the real property actions and proceedings law. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that a person is in violation of this section if it is established that the person requested information from a tenant screening bureau relating to a potential tenant or otherwise inspected court records relating to a potential tenant and the person subsequently refuses to rent or offer a lease to the potential tenant.
2. Whenever the attorney general shall believe from evidence satisfactory to him or her that any person, firm, corporation or association or agent or employee thereof has violated subdivision one of this section, he or she may bring an action or special proceeding in the supreme court for a judgment enjoining the continuance of such violation and for a civil penalty of not less than five hundred dollars, but not more than one thousand dollars for each violation.
