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New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) recently released the new list of residential buildings that have been placed into the agency’s Ninth Round of the Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP). The AEP is aimed at increasing the pressure on the owners of the city’s multifamily residential buildings that have fallen into disrepair, many of which are rent regulated, to bring the properties up to...

As the 421-a tax break program was set to expire on Jan. 15 of this year, developers pushed applications through the city's Department of Buildings. A total of 7,781 permits were approved for 299 different projects, which represents the third highest monthly total in the past seven years. The 421-a tax abatement program allowed developers tax exemptions on the development of vacant land into a residential building with at least 20 ...

According to a recently filed lawsuit, owners are seeking damages against one of their tenants who had an illegal Airbnb sublet. In May, a Department of Buildings inspector found that tenants at the owner's five-story, 21-unit building, were illegally renting their apartments through Airbnb and similar services.

Recently, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered 50,000 housing units to be returned to rent-regulated status. He has charged that owners getting a major tax break from New York State have illegally deregulated apartments. Cuomo, who issued his order on Jan. 6, said that the owners of the targeted buildings are receiving J-51 tax benefits from the state and had claimed to be exempt from rent regulation, contrary to the law. The state is sending a l...

A new bill in Albany would set tougher fines for owners who overcharge their rent-stabilized tenants. The bill by Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, both Democrats, would increase penalties against landlords to five times the amount of the overcharge, plus interest, for a first violation and 10 times the amount for subsequent violations.

The city’s Department of Buildings responded to New York’s building boom in 2015 with a significant increase in the number of stop-work orders issued at unsafe construction sites. There were 8,326 stop-work orders as of Dec. 18, which represents a 17 percent increase over 7,120 such orders in all of 2014.

Public advocate Letitia James recently released her annual list of the city's 100 worst landlords, based on data gathered from the Department of Buildings and Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The release of the annual roster, which is hosted on a searchable website for a year, coincided with a tenant rally organized by the public advocate’s office.

After getting a deadly Legionnaires' outbreak that left 12 people dead and an estimated 120 people sick in the Bronx under control in August, the Health Department reported a new cluster of cases in the same borough this fall. The most recent cases have afflicted people ranging in age from 45 to 75. The first case was reported on Sept. 21, with six other cases coming to the attention of Health Department officials over the followin...

According to a recently issued NYU Furman Center study, the de Blasio administration's proposed reforms to 421-a would not interrupt the housing market, but could have wide-ranging effects on housing production in New York City. Under the changes proposed by the administration, building rental projects in some neighborhoods of the city would become even more lucrative than under the old program.

Airbnb, the short-term rental website, recently reached out to the City Council to discuss sharing data that would help the city crack down on those who are taking advantage of the site by running illegal hotels out of apartment buildings. After years of resisting handing over data, the company has changed course after a particularly contentious City Council hearing, wherein council members slammed the company for "turning a blind...