New York City’s Mayor de Blassio announced during his state of the city address last week that he plans to “take” buildings from landlords who threaten the well-being of tenants, however he stopped short of explaining how. But city officials have since told The Real Deal that the plan is to expand laws governing an existing program that enabled the city to foreclose on more than 60 properties in Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens during 2018.
His Honors plan is as follows:
- The creation of the Office of Tenant Protection to protect tenants against harassment
- Expand the use of third party transfer administered by HPD to seize properties
- Threaten owners with seizure who do not resolve building violations and pay off fines
Mayor Bill De Blasio and Robert Cornegy (Credit: Getty Images)
Already many have come out against his plan of seizing private property and I am sure it will be not be as easy as he makes it sound. The office of Tenant protection will be formed as a five-person body that will ramp up enforcement against landlords who harass tenants with an initial budget of $450,000. The Real Estate Board of New York, came out in support of de Blasio’s increased enforcement efforts on Thursday, but in a follow up statement was less enthusiastic about the prospect of building seizure.
