We’re cruising fast to the end of 2024, ushering in end-of-year deadlines and 2025’s massive new compliance regulations. For now, here’s our October 2024 update on what the City Council has been discussing when it comes to property owners and managers. Stay tuned for more resources on the end-of-year Compliance Crush and what comes afterwards.
Lots of new proposal introductions were made in October. Before we dive into those, let’s review two pieces of “old business” – existing proposals on the docket from the Housing & Buildings Committee:
Gas Piping Adjustments & Steam Radiator Inspections
Proposed laws for adjusting gas piping inspections (a large bill with a number of specific proposals) and mandating routine inspections for steam radiators were both laid over by the Housing & Buildings committee after the October 16th meeting.
There’s some potential insight into why both bills were laid over (postponed for action, essentially) in the hearing testimony from that meeting. The testimony also provides insights into numbers behind steam radiator infractions from HPD, and an estimate of how many properties would be impacted by this rule. Several community organizations also testified, providing alternate solutions and suggestions for the above rules.
We’ll see if any of the testimony results in changes to the proposals, or if the proposals are laid over indefinitely.
New Proposals
The below proposals were all introduced during October council meetings, with future updates to come.
General
- Bird-friendly materials: Would require that by January 1, 2030, buildings classified as “business, mercantile, or residential” under city code would be required to comply with bird-friendly windows and exterior requirements, except for detached 1 and 2 family dwellings
- Compost charges: Would require DSNY to allow community composters to charge the general public for organic waste collection at drop-off sites. Would also allow community composters to sell compost to the public
- Commercial watchlist: This would create a watchlist of commercial landlords who have knowingly leased premises to unlicensed sellers of “cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, tobacco products, or illicit cannabis”
Residential
- Percentage of disability “set aside” units: Would require HPD to “require developers who receive city financial assistance for a housing development project to set aside at least 10 percent of units for individuals with mobility issues and at least 5 percent of units for individuals with vision or hearing impairments”
- Air cooling requirements: This bill would require tenant-occupied dwellings to be provided with cooled and dehumidified air from 6/15 – 9/15 each year
- Rent-stabilized information postings: This would require owners to post signs in the common area stating that “the building contains rent stabilized units and providing information about how tenants can submit inquiries to New York State Homes and Community Renewal to find out if their units are rent stabilized”
Tenant Harassment and Safety
On November 12th, the Committee on Housing and Buildings will review a number of proposals related to tenant harassment and safety. The below bills are currently listed on the agenda:
- Expanded definition of tenant harassment
- Injunctive relief for lawful occupants of rental units
- Increased penalties for unlawful evictions
- Creating lock change procedures in response to illegal lockouts
- Require unlawful eviction cases to be heard within 5 days
One of the proposals focuses on a resolution denying property owners from filing eviction proceedings for tenants who reside in buildings with “substantial pending housing maintenance code violations.”
That said, the Council can’t mandate this directly – that’s why it’s a resolution drafted to the New York State Legislature. You can see the current draft of the resolution here.
There’s lots on the docket, but not a lot of concrete new laws just yet. As always, stay tuned for our regular monthly updates here!
Related Articles
About the Author
