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Council members Mark Levine and Vanessa Gibson are co-sponsors of a City Council bill that would establish the right to legal counsel in eviction cases. The bill, Intro 214, would create a position of civil justice coordinator under the commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development. If passed, it would make New York City the first city in the U.S. to recognize a right to counsel in eviction proceedings.
Recently, an owner with illegally partitioned apartments pled guilty to negligent homicide for a 2010 fire that killed five residents. Prosecutors had filed charges against both the man accused of setting the fire and the owner. In February 2015, the owner is scheduled to be sentenced to one to three years in prison.
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) updated its flood-zone maps for New York City, it covered 84,596 structures in the five boroughs, up from 23,885 in the 2010 maps, according to a recent report by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. These newly analyzed flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs), which were proposed last year and are awaiting federal approval, could increase flood-insurance rates by as much as 18 percent per year for similar levels of cov...
Two years ago the city passed a law to make landlords repair the “underlying conditions” that cause mold to linger and ceilings to collapse instead of simply covering problems with layers of paint. Since the law was passed, records show the city has targeted only 69 buildings, including eight in Manhattan, four in Queens, and one in Staten Island. There were 36 in Brooklyn and 20 in the Bronx. The city has stated that it has the resources to target only 50 b...
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently announced that the state’s Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) has signed an agreement that will end the reported harassment and intimidation of long-term tenants at several rent-regulated buildings in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Flatbush and Crown Heights. The owner of these buildings had purportedly been engaging in a pattern of abusive behavior and disregarding rent laws.
Owners who currently participate in government programs that offer subsidies such as bond financing and tax breaks in return for setting aside 20 percent of a building’s units for low-income housing will be able to sell their market-rate rentals—up to 80 percent of an individual building—in exchange for permanently preserving or increasing the property’s number of low-income offerings, according to new guidelines implemented by the New York State...
Two Albany lawmakers want State Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky to investigate Airbnb for what they call misleading insurance policies. State Sen. Adriano Espaillat and Assemblyman Francisco Moya in a recent letter to Lawsky questioned the legality of Airbnb’s “$1 Million Host Guarantee,” which promises to reimburse up to $1 million in property damaged by a guest.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently announced that his office has reached a settlement with Colonial Management over the company’s maintenance of 42 rent-regulated buildings in New York City and its treatment of tenants at those properties.
The agreement requires Colonial Management Group, LLC to provide more than $225,000 in rent credits and restitution to tenants. The agreement also requires that delayed maintenance projects be compl...
City Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn) recently introduced a bill requiring the city Department of Buildings to alert community boards and council members within 10 days of receiving an application to alter or demolish rent-regulated homes in their districts. The legislation has eight co-sponsors, including city Public Advocate Letitia James and council members Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) and Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills).
New York City and State officials have recently filed a joint “friend of the court” brief with the Court of Appeals urging it to shield rent-stabilized leases in bankruptcy proceedings. The case involves an elderly widow fighting to keep her rent-stabilized lease from becoming an asset with which to pay off her creditors.
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