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New York City's Human Rights Commission (HRC) recently filed a notice that an owner’s policy of not allowing rent-stabilized tenants to use the gym is discriminatory. The notice followed a tenant's complaint that the rent-regulated tenants excluded from the building’s gym are largely over 65, while market-rate tenants aren't. The HRC’s notice states that there's enough evidence of age discr...
The Manhattan District Attorney is overseeing the investigation into the deadly building explosion that occurred last month in the East Village. The explosion caused two buildings to collapse and ignited a large fire that quickly spread to neighboring buildings, injuring at least 19 people and killing two.
On March 30, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law Intro. 685, which extends the city's rent stabilization laws for another three years, until April 1, 2018. The mayor has asked Albany to also follow the city's suit as the Urstadt Law of 1971 comes up for renewal this June. The city extension will stick only if the state renews the law.
A U.S. appeals court recently ruled that an elderly Manhattan woman's rent-stabilized lease could not be seized and sold to satisfy her creditors after she filed for bankruptcy. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the rent-stabilized tenant’s lease, which she has had for more than four decades, qualified as a "local public assistance benefit" that state law places off-limits to bankruptcy creditors.
Under legislation recently introduced in the City Council, residential buildings would not be allowed to block tenants from bringing their bicycles into their apartments. The proposal is sponsored by Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan) and follows up on a 2009 law that required commercial landlords of buildings with freight elevators to allow cyclists to bring their bikes into offices.
The Comptroller's office recently criticized the city's housing courts over having inadequate services for those who don't speak English. "In a city with nearly two million individuals with limited English proficiency, it is outrageous that, in our courthouses, tenants wait hours for interpreters, help desks aren't always able to provide necessary services, and signage and literature are inadequate,&quo...
New York City and State officials recently announced the creation of a multi-agency task force aimed at finding and penalizing bad landlords. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman spoke of the task force as an unprecedented collaboration among city agencies that investigate building and housing code compliance, and state agencies that investigate and criminally charge harassment. The attorney genera...
Carl Heastie was elected speaker of the New York State Assembly on Feb. 3, making him the first African American to hold the powerful position. Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, succeeds Sheldon Silver who resigned after being charged with allegedly taking nearly $4 million in payoffs and kickbacks. The charges include accepting nearly $700,000 from a law firm for referring two large developers who benefited from tax-abat...
Lower Manhattan councilwoman Margaret Chin is proposing a bill that would require owners the HPD suspects of bad behavior to place 10 percent of a building's rent rolls from a five-year period into an escrow account. The city would use the money in the event it needs to swiftly relocate displaced tenants. The department is already allowed to recover the costs of tenant relocation from landlords, but Chin's bill woul...
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