Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Department of Buildings (DOB) Commissioner Melanie La Rocca to announce new restrictions for landlords with multiple violations for unsafe or hazardous conditions.
The new measure allows the DOB to deny new construction permit applications at properties where landlords may be using poor building maintenance as a tool to harass their tenants.
These changes build off the legislation sponsored by Council Member Justin Brannan and passed by the Council, Local Law 104 of 2019.
The DOB will create and maintain a list of multiple dwellings in New York City with excessive, open, and hazardous DOB and Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) violations in relation to the number of residential units. The list will be updated daily. Buildings placed on this list will be prevented from obtaining new permits until the violations are resolved and the conditions are corrected, except in situations where permits are necessary to correct a violation or other select circumstances.
The permit restriction will apply to violations issued on or after Jan. 4, 2020, the date Local Law 104 of 2019 went into effect. Restrictions will address violations that have not been certified as having been resolved with DOB or cleared by HPD.
The permit denials will be applied to buildings with the following ratios of violations to dwelling units: buildings with 35 or more dwelling units and two or more violations for every unit; and buildings with fewer than 35 dwelling units and three or more violations for every unit.
The permit restrictions will also be applied to submissions in the Department’s DOB NOW portal in the near future.
