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The New York State Senate and Assembly recently passed legislation extending the J-51 property tax exemption and abatement program. The J-51 tax incentive is an as-of-right tax exemption and abatement for residential rehabilitation or conversion to multiple dwellings. J-51 participants are exempt from tax increases resulting from residential renovation or conversion work for either 14 or 34 years. They can then receive a break on existing real estate taxes of 8.3 percen...
Last month, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) proposed a water rate increase for all rate payers citywide. DEP proposed a 2.76 percent increase to the water rate in 2022 to the city’s Water Board. Last year, with the pandemic as a backdrop, the DEP recommended freezing rates for FY 2021, and the Water Board ultimately approved the rate freeze. Should the 2.76 percent water increase be adopted, a typical multifamily unit, with metered billing, co...
On May 5, Governor Cuomo signed a measure passed by the New York State Legislature that extends a moratorium on evictions through Aug. 31. The law extends the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020, which was passed in December, for an additional four months. The protections for tenants had ended May 1. Under this extension, tenants can continue through August to cite economic hardship caused by the pandemic as a reason for not paying their r...
The New York City Council recently began its examination of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s preliminary budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins July 1. At $92.3 billion, it’s almost $3 billion less than this year’s budget. The mayor’s preliminary budget came out at a time of great uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. According to the Mayor’s Office, the pandemic has brought $5.9 billion of unexpected costs as unemployment skyrocketed to 20 ...
The COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020, signed by the governor on Dec. 28, 2020, suspended eviction and foreclosure proceedings for 60 days to give renters and homeowners the opportunity to submit a hardship declaration. The suspension ended Feb. 26.
A total of 3,059 tenants were evicted from New York City apartments in all of 2020, according to recent data provided by the city’s Department of Investigation (DOI). The data was compiled by DOI from reports submitted by city marshals, who are charged with enforcing court orders, including evictions. The total number of evictions in 2020 represents a decrease of more than 80 percent from the nearly 17,000 evictions completed in 2019.
On Dec. 10, 2020, the New York City Council passed Intro. 2033, creating Interim Certificates of Occupancy (ICOs). Certificates of Occupancy are government documents that indicate the legal use and occupancy of buildings.
In May, the state legislature passed the Emergency Rent Relief Act of 2020 to help low-income renters make their monthly rent payments for up to four months. The program was funded by $100 million of federal money. Critics claimed the legislation enabling the act was written far too narrowly, and that the window to apply for relief was too short and ill-timed. It opened just as New Yorkers were receiving the $600-a-week unemployment checks from the federal government, w...
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams recently released the annual Worst Landlord Watchlist, which catalogues the 100 most egregiously negligent landlords in New York City as determined by widespread, repeated, and unaddressed violations in buildings on the list. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) tops the list for the third year in a row, while Williams also added Mayor Bill de Blasio himself, citing what he called mismanagement of NYCHA and a failure to take suffi...
Diana Florence has joined the crowded field challenging Cyrus Vance, the incumbent District Attorney of New York County. Florence is one of nine candidates challenging incumbent DA Cyrus Vance in a primary race that will culminate next June 2021. She began her career as a prosecutor 25 years ago in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which included time as head of its Construction Fraud Task Force.
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