Keeping House: New Penalties for Multiple Dwelling Violations
Certain violations after January 4, 2020 will hold up new permits for owners.
As of March 4, 2021, applications for initial work permits will be denied to multiple-dwelling residences with a certain ratio of hazardous, unresolved Housing Maintenance Code and/or Construction Code violations. Under Local Law 104 of 2019, landlords will be unable to obtain new permits until the issues are resolved and corrected, except where required to correct a violation or certain select circumstances.
This latest anti-displacement law, meant to reinforce tenant protection in New York City (similar to LL114 and LL106 of 2019), will apply to violations issued on or after January 4, 2020 for:
- Two (2) or more violations for every unit in buildings with 35 or more dwelling units (i.e. a 40-unit building with at least 80 violations).
- Three (3) or more violations for every unit in buildings with under 35 units (i.e. a 10-unit building with at least 30 violations).
Qualifying violations are:
- Class 1 and 2 OATH summonses issued by the DOB that have not been cleared or corrected, which will be flagged in BIS as “LL 104/19 Permit Restriction” until the ratio falls below the threshold outlined above.
- Housing Maintenance Code Class B and Class C violations issued by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) that have not been cleared.
Exceptions
Any multiple dwelling flagged under these conditions will have a new “LL 104/19 Request for Exception to Permit Denial” Required Item added to the job filing in BIS. Those wishing to obtain a new permit for a flagged building can fill out and submit the form to indicate the permit or property falls under one or more of the listed exceptions, which include:
- The permit is meant to correct an outstanding violation.
- The permit is for work meant to protect public health and safety.
- The permit is for a tenant who is not the owner of the property or responsible for the existing violations.
(For the full list of exceptions, see Service Notice.)
To check your violations, you’ll need to enter your building address into HPDONLINE for Housing Maintenance violations or BIS for OATH summonses. You can also try tools like BuildingOwl, which will assemble all violations across multiple agencies in one place.
For assistance on resolving violations and for all other code concerns, please reach out to our team at Outsource Consultants.
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