Anti-Displacement Laws

The City Council recently passed several new bills aimed at increasing tenant protections in New York City. Here’s what you need to know:

Buyout Disclosures

Starting October 15, 2019, the existing housing code (27-2004) will be amended to require additional information that needs to be disclosed when making buyout offers to tenants including:

• The median asking rent for a dwelling unit in the same community district
• That there is no guarantee the tenant will be able to rent a dwelling unit in the same community district with the same number of bedrooms that the person is “currently lawfully entitled to occupancy of” for the same rent of the current contract; and
• That additional factors may impact the ability of said tenant to rent a dwelling unit including, but not limited to, their current employment and credit history.

Read the full law here.

Permit Denials

Beginning January 4, 2020, the DOB will be required to deny building permits to residential buildings that have an excessive number of open HPD and DOB violations. Local Law 104 of 2019 requires the commissioner to deny building permits for residentials buildings that have a ratio of:

• three or more open hazardous violations for every dwelling unit (in buildings with fewer than 35 units)
• two or more open hazardous violations for every dwelling unit (in buildings with more than 35 unit

It’s a good idea to resolve these outstanding violations now as it can take a considerable amount of time to get violations removed. During the winter, violation removal inspections by HPD can take up to 90 days.

Posting of Violations

Beginning December 5, 2019, property owners will be required to post copies of violations outside of an occupied dwelling unit, or in a common area for violations that affect the whole building, in a conspicuous manner within 5 days of the violation issue date.

Copies of violations must also be provided to the tenants of the occupied unit where the violating conditions exist, and also to the tenants of adjacent units. Read the full law here.

Lead-Based Paint Record Keeping

HPD’s audits of residential buildings’ lead-based paint record keeping are now in full swing. Per Local Law 70, HPD is identifying buildings built prior to 1960 for audits to determine property owners’ compliance with Local Law 1 of 2004. If your building is selected for an audit you will need to provide a Record Production Order within 45 days of the request.

The Record Production Order must include:

• Copies of the annual lead-based paint inquiry notice sent to all tenants
• Copies of the responses from your tenants
• Copies of records of all work to correct lead-based paint violations
• Copies of records of all non-violation work that disturbed lead-based paint in dwellings where a child under the age of 6 resides
• Copies of records of all work performed at the turnover of any unit that was the subject of a new tenancy

Failure to respond to the Record Production Order will result in a Class C Violation and civil penalties up to $5,000.

Self-Closing Door Violations

Per Local Law 111 of 2018, all multiple-dwelling buildings are required to have self-closing doors on all doors that provide access to interior corridors or stairs by July 31, 2021.

However, HPD has stated that starting on June 12, 2019, all self-closing door violations will be marked as Class C immediately hazardous violations, and failure to correct these violations in a timely manner could result in emergency repairs through HPD. SiteCompli is continuing to investigate this discrepancy and we will keep you notified with any updates.

Annual Reminders