Online Alerts

Deceased Rent-Stabilized Hoarder Allegedly Leaves $18M

September 11, 2014    

An eccentric investor who hoarded expensive clothes, exquisite silverware, and pricey paperweights in a two-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment allegedly left behind $18 million when he died last year.  However, according to court documents, the details of his fortune's whereabouts are...

Councilwoman Wants More Rent-Regulation Programs in SCRIE

September 11, 2014    

City Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan) plans to introduce a resolution urging the state to bring a larger swath of the city's elderly into the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption, or SCRIE, program, which offers landlords a property tax abatement in exchange for freezing the rents...

NYC Comptroller Issues Report on Citywide Housing Conditions

September 11, 2014    

Almost a quarter of the city's million rent-regulated apartments had three or more maintenance problems, according to a new report looking at housing conditions in New York by city Comptroller Scott Stringer. This information was based on Census data. Staten Island had the highest-quality...

Report Highlights Resiliency Costs in Multifamily Housing

July 31, 2014    

The NYU Furman Center recently released a report that examines the challenges of retrofitting New York City’s multifamily housing stock against future climate threats. The report, entitled "The Price of Resilience: Can Multifamily Housing Afford to Adapt?" was the culmination of...

Attorney General Moves to Dismiss Major Property Tax Suit

July 31, 2014    

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently moved to dismiss a class action suit seeking to overturn existing city and state property tax laws, which the plaintiffs contend is racially discriminatory. The class action suit was filed in February and seeks to overturn a property tax...

Owner Investigated for Forcing Out Rent-Stabilized Tenants

July 31, 2014    

An owner is under investigation for allegedly using illegal tactics to force rent-stabilized tenants out of his properties. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched the investigation following complaints about the behavior of the owner's company, Steven Croman Realty.

Mayor Seeks Ability to Eliminate City's ‘Poor Doors’

July 31, 2014    

Recently, a planned separate entrance for residents of low-income units in a luxury housing development on the Upper West Side was approved, and claims of modern-day segregation followed shortly after. Now, the de Blasio administration hopes to change a 2009 zoning code, enacted under former...

Landlord Group Demands de Blasio Cap Owners' Expenses

July 10, 2014    

In the wake of the Rent Guidelines Board vote that capped rent increases at the lowest hike in the board’s 45-year history, the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) has called upon Mayor Bill de...

Two Owners Jailed for Repeatedly Refusing Basic Repairs

July 10, 2014    

Tenant Loses Five-Year Rent Overcharge Case

July 10, 2014    

In a 7-0 ruling, the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, recently ruled that the tenant could not trigger a DHCR probe into improvements made at her apartment beyond the four-year time frame. The tenant had tried to invoke the ...

NYC Bedbug Cases Drop to Four-Year Low

June 4, 2014    

According to recent data from the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, bedbug infestations have dropped every year for the past four years. Brooklyn has had the most bedbug violations since 2010, but all five boroughs have seen declines in confirmed bedbug cases. Here are the...

City Budgets to Combat Rat Problems

June 4, 2014    

Mayor de Blasio’s budget for the Health Department includes $611,000 to target the “rat reservoirs.” The money will be used to hire nine inspectors to hunt and exterminate in Manhattan and South Bronx. They will be specifically targeting colonies in parks and sewers where...