In the News

RSS

Three Brooklyn owners of distressed properties were arrested recently for failing to comply with court orders directing them to correct hazardous housing violations on their properties and failing to appear in court, according to the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

A Kings County Housing Court judge issued warrants of arrest for the owners. The owners' buildings are in HPD's Alternative Enforcement Program,...

In the past few months, Manhattan rents have continued to rise and vacancy rates have hit a new low, according to reports released on July 8 by Citi Habitats. Manhattan's apartment vacancy rate was 0.72 percent in the second quarter, the lowest vacancy rate that Citi Habitats has seen since it started tracking vacancies in 2002. The last time the rate was nearly this low was in second quarter of 2006, when it was 0.76 percent.

In a statement released by his office recently, Mayor Bloomberg outlined how the city plans to deal with dangerous illegally converted apartments. A multi-agency task force, chaired by Chief Policy Advisor John Feinblatt, developed a risk assessment model that will be applied to illegal conversion complaint records weekly. The model generates a targeted list of illegal conversions at high risk for a fire, and the locations are inspected within 48 hours by a joint inspec...

City fire and building officials will search for new ways to target landlords who unlawfully subdivide their properties, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the wake of an April 25 Bronx fire that killed a family of three living in illegal subdivided housing.

The New York City Department of Sanitation requires city residents to fully seal any mattresses or box springs in plastic bags before leaving them out for curbside pickup. Failure to do so can result in a $100 fine. The law is intended to help slow the spread of bedbugs.

A district court judge in Nassau County recently ruled that an Upper East Side tenant could break her lease and pay reduced rent because when she had complained about a neighbor's cigarette smoking, the landlord failed to take appropriate action to alleviate the secondhand smoke.

A settlement between a developer and the U.S. government has owners across the city fearing they'll be forced to make changes at tens of thousands of apartments to comply with federal law preventing discrimination against the disabled.

Mayor Bloomberg and DOB Commissioner LiMandri recently announced the results of an undercover operation to crack down on illegally converted dwellings and hold property owners accountable for putting potential tenants and first responders at risk.

Governor Paterson recently signed into law a measure giving the city greater power to crack down on illegal hotels. The law removes a legal gray area that contributed to the problem of landlords renting apartments as hotel rooms so they can charge more than rent laws allow. It provides a clear definition of permanent occupancy.

For two subsequent years before this year's Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) order, the RGB authorized a fixed rent increase that affected only tenants who have lived in their apartments for six years or longer and had legal rents of $1,000 or less. Approximately 300,000 apartments had renewal leases executed in 2008 and 2009 that fell under the low-rent supplement criteria in RGB Orders #40 (2008) and #41 (2009).