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Owners of large apartment buildings in the city are bearing more of the property tax burden than owners of one- to three-family homes, according to a recent report released by NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. The report is titled “State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods 2011.”

The City Council is considering two new elevator safety bills. One would require certification for mechanics, and the other would require elevators to be equipped with extra safety mechanisms.

The proposed legislation is prompted by the tragic death of the advertising executive who was killed last December when the elevator she was entering at her Madison Avenue office building shot upward unexpectedly, with the doors still open.

The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) is mandated by law to establish yearly rent adjustments for rent-stabilized apartments in New York City. The board holds an annual series of public meetings and hearings to consider research from staff, and testimony from owners, tenants, advocacy groups, and industry experts.

MetLife Inc. recently agreed to settle a 2007 lawsuit by tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village who claimed they were charged too much rent to live in Manhattan's largest apartment complex.

Cops raided a Bronx apartment building on Jan. 31 and found it had been turned into a pot farm. Acting on a tip, police broke down the door and discovered 600 marijuana-growing pots. They filled the top four floors of the five-story building.

Officials estimated there were 1,500 pounds of pot growing in the building, and at $5,000 a pound, it had a street value of about $7.5 million. Cops also found modifications to the ventilation of the building and other change...

Maintenance work performed by Transel Elevator was the likely culprit in the Dec. 14 elevator accident that killed an advertising executive in Midtown, according to Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri. An advertising executive was killed when the elevator she was stepping into lurched upward, partly pinning her in the elevator shaft.

Recently, the Supreme Court asked New York City and State to file answers to an owner's petition to be heard. The owner contends that New York City's rent laws constitute a “taking” of his property without just compensation, a violation of his constitutional rights. If the owner has his way, the nation's highest court may soon be examining New York City's rent stabilization laws for the first time since the 1920s.

The City Council is hoping to apply more pressure on building owners who convert residential apartments into illegal hotel rooms, proposing new fines for repeat violations that could soar as high as $25,000.

In a decision that affects all residential buildings in New York City, a Bronx Supreme Court recently ruled that front entrances must be made handicapped-accessible at the request of a disabled resident, unless doing so would be physically impractical and cost prohibitive.

A recent audit from city Controller John Liu discovered that the city had paid out $11.8 million through the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program in recent years to nearly 4,000 dead people. Either their apartment owners or relatives had been cashing in on the oversight.