#CancelLien

QNS
 

Two Queens lawmakers introduced legislation that would postpone the New York City tax lien sale by one year following the expiration of the COVID-19 state of emergency order.

State Senator Leroy Comrie and Assemblyman David Weprin said the annual lien sale in which debt on tax-delinquent properties is auctioned to private collectors was scheduled for May 15 but was delayed due to the ongoing pandemic.

As of now, the sale is scheduled to occur on September 4. The owners of properties eligible for the tax lien have until September 3 to pay their debt or enter into a payment agreement with the Department of Finance. Once a lien is sold, the property owner must arrange a payment agreement with the lien servicing company or risk legal seizure of their properties.

Liens are sold to private servicing companies with special operating authorization from the city and currently, these include Tower Capital Management, LLC and MTAG Services, LLC

In Comrie’s southeast Queens district, a residential community that is still recovering from the subprime mortgage crisis, as many as 600 properties are eligible for the 2020 lien sale. In past years, 

Comrie’s office has worked closely with the Department of Finance to identify and assist property owners ahead of the annual lien sale, but COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges to doing community outreach.

“Homeowners facing the lien sale need ample time to consult with attorneys, enter into payment agreements, and learn about exemption programs ahead of the sale,” Comrie said. “COVID-19 has made this all impossible to do on a scale that we need it to happen. The tax lien sale can’t happen this year, and I’m going to raise hell between now and September 4 to see that it doesn’t happen.”

With thousands of city homeowners impacted by the economic effects of the pandemic, Weprin says holding the lien sale this year would be unconscionable.

Owners of illegally subdivided homes face steep fines, liens

 (Photo by Carly Miller/BKLYNER)

From Bklyner:

Today, City Council unanimously passed a bill to enforce fines on landlords that illegally subdivide homes to create “modern tenement housing”, an issue that has led to severe overcrowding and deaths in southern Brooklyn.

The bill, Intro 1218 proposed by City Councilmember Vincent Gentile, targets landlords of homes classified as “aggravated illegal conversions,” slapping a $15,000 violation per unit beyond the certificate of occupancy. If unpaid, the fine would be subject to a lien sale on the property.

The legislation also expands the authority of the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) and the New York City Environmental Control Board (ECB) to inspect properties and impose penalties.

Gentile, representing Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and Bensonhurst, was joined today by Council Members Barry S. Grodenchik and Jumaane Williams, representatives from Boro President Eric Adams' office, and dozens of civic groups and housing advocates who spent years rallying around this issue. The bill was supported by 23 City Council members, said Gentile on a sunny Wednesday at the steps of City Hall. A few hours later, the bill passed with a 49-0 vote.

“These strong restrictions and penalties will force egregious property owners to comply with New York City’s building code,” said Gentile. “Substandard housing is not affordable housing.”

Huntley owes big bucks to the state

From the Daily News:

Former state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was released from prison last year after serving time for corruption, is in trouble again.

Huntley, a Queens Democrat, owes nearly $751 in unpaid income taxes from 2012 to the state, officials confirmed. A tax warrant was issued by the state in December seeking to collect the money.

Queens building inspectors sent to Brooklyn

From Brooklyn Daily:

The city is taking steps to put Brooklyn’s illegal home conversion problem on ice, but locals say the battle is just heating up.

The Department of Buildings is sending more inspectors to Brooklyn, and Borough President Adams introduced a multi-pronged bill to fight illegal home conversions, officials announced at a town hall meeting on Feb. 26. But residents who see their neighborhood being crowded and endangered by shady building practices say they’ll only rest when they see results.

The city shifted more building inspectors to Brooklyn last summer to step up enforcement in response to a rise in complaints, an official said.

“The vast majority of illegal conversions were in Queens [before 2009],” said Tim Hogan, a deputy commissioner with the buildings department. “The numbers are changing now, and as recently as July of last year, we transferred some of the Queens unit into Brooklyn. In doing so we have increased fourfold the number of access warrants that we have applied for and received in Brooklyn.”

The borough president and two Brooklyn councilmen are now pushing a law to give those additional inspectors more teeth.

Adams and councilmen Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) and Jumaane Wiliams (D–East Flatbush) have introduced legislation to create a new building code violation for illegal subdivisions and a minimum $45,000 fine for landlords who turn a single unit into three or more. It would also relax criteria for obtaining warrants to inspect suspicious properties.

Critics have long panned the city for failing to collect fines form landlords, which currently total $640 million in uncollected cash, Marrone said.

Currently, the main leverage the buildings department has to collect fines for doing work without a permit comes only if a scofflaw landlord eventually comes to the agency to ask for one.

But under the proposed bill, the city could put a lien against homes with unpaid conversion violations, allowing it collect when the property is sold.

The bill also stipulates that the revenue from the fines would be earmarked for a fund to provide three months of housing to tenants booted from subdivided homes by enforcement actions, a spokesman for Adams said.

7 of Avella's bills passed by Senate

This week the State Senate passed a series of legislation, authored by Senator Avella, dedicated to expanding public safety, creating an early learning program, advocating for noise reduction, preventing fraud when paying off tax liens, and minimizing the potential for miscalculations in child support payments.

The bills which passed through the Senate include:

· S4898: Mandates the New York Transit Authority to produce annual reports concerning actions to reduce noise.
· S7089: Requires that the Metropolitan Transit Authority provide the public with a pledge to customers; this ensures that riders are provided with more information and that their interests in utilizing the public transport system are protected.
· S6903-C: Enhances public safety and directly protects animal caretakers, those interacting with wild animals, bystanders and the animals themselves by preventing direct contact between wild animals and members of the public.
· S680: Relates to method of payment on delinquent real property taxes, sewer rents, sewer surcharges, water rents, or any other charges that are made a lien; payments must be made in certified check or money order to prevent fraud
· S6961: Establishes the Early Learning Council with the purpose of securing public and private support for early learning program for children up to the age of five.
· S6784: Amends an inconsistency in existing social services law to ensure that an accurate method is used when calculating the amount of child support payments by the Supreme Family Court
· S725A: Increases the terms of office of members of the legislature to four years

Three of the bills, S4989, S7089 and S6961 have already passed the Assembly and will now be delivered to the Governor for his signature.