On June 14, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. The governor has called the legislation “the most sweeping, aggressive protections in state history,” and it’s been described as the “strongest tenant protections in...
The New York City Council recently passed a package of lead safety bills that’s intended to update and strengthen the city’s lead laws, setting some of the highest standards in the country. The bills include new guidelines for testing for lead in day care centers, testing for lead in...
Effective Dec. 6, 2018, per Local Law 117, the owner of a multiple dwelling must provide stove knob covers for gas-powered stoves where the owner knows or reasonably should know that a child under 6 years of age resides. Owners must also provide stove knob covers in a unit without a child under...
This past January, the New York City Council passed Local Law 55, the Asthma-Free Housing Act. The law intends to combat rising asthma rates and improve the quality of life for more than one million New Yorkers who have been diagnosed with asthma. Effective Jan. 19, 2019, under Local Law 55 of...
DOB is proposing to amend rules relating to the annual reporting of energy and water use by individual “covered” buildings. Local Law 84, the benchmarking law, was enacted in 2009 and currently affects all buildings larger than 50,000 square feet. The law requires owners to enter...
In December, in the last legislative session of 2017, the City Council passed a number of bills affecting owners. They are intended to go into effect in 2018. After a bill is passed by the City Council, it is presented to the mayor, who has 30 days to either sign the bill into law, veto the bill...
In early December, Mayor De Blasio signed Local Law 149 clarifying that owners have to clear snow from the area around fire hydrants at the same time they have to clear sidewalks. Specifically, the law allows the Department of Sanitation to issue violations to owners for failing to remove the...
Mayor Bill de Blasio recently signed a package of three green buildings bills into law. “Buildings account for more than two-thirds of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, which we have pledged to reduce 80 percent by 2050,” said Daniel Zarrilli, Senior Director of Climate...
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) recently announced that a cooling tower in a South Bronx hotel was the source of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that began on July 10. Laboratory tests determined that the Legionella strain found in the hotel’s...
On June 25, Governor Cuomo and leaders of the New York State Legislature agreed to strengthen the state’s rent regulations and to overhaul the 421-a tax abatement program. The legislative session had been originally scheduled to end on June 17, but negotiations continued into the following...
The NYS Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act, which was signed into law by the governor on May 28, 2010, took effect in full on Jan. 1, 2015. Overseeing the law’s enforcement is the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Businesses and households are no longer allowed...
Starting Dec. 3, 2014, all residential leases issued in New York State must include a notice advising tenants whether there is a sprinkler system at the “leased premises.” If there is a sprinkler system, the owner must also state the last maintenance and inspection dates of the...
