Covid Evictions and other Legal Updates
By Eric Kahan
I. Dept of Investigation (DOI)
The attached MEMO was sent October 13th by the Department of Investigations to the City Marshals regarding evictions. As you can see, to do residential evictions on pre-Covid cases, a landlord needs a court order. We have been filing the required motions. However, the Courts have not placed any of the motions on the calendar for argument as of yet and we not confident any orders will be issued by judges to allow evictions to proceed any time soon. Notably, the tenants still have protections of the Safe Harbor Act and CDC federally issued restrictions so it does seem that the reality is that there will not any evictions before January.
Commercial evictions on pre-covid cases are currently allowed to begin again as of 10-20. However, the memo makes it clear that there may be further orders from the Governor or Court Administration that delays these evictions again
II. Local Law 152 of 2016
All Building Owners other, than 1 or 2 families, that contain a gas piping system inspections of exposed gas piping and report whether or not work must be performed. Owners are required to comply based upon the location of the property. All buildings in Community District 1, 3 and 10 in all borough have until December 31, 2020. Attached here is a map of all Districts and here are some frequently asked questions. Please click on the Local Law 152 link above for a complete list of District deadline.
III. DOB E-Filing Payments for immediately hazardous violations can no longer be paid in person as of November 2,2020.
IV. Heating season runs October 1- May 31. Please make sure you know the rules; please see attached.
V. New Proposal to BAN CREDIT CHECK
Though this is not a law "yet" there is a Bill before State Senate which seeks in part to make it discriminatory to deny an applicant for housing based upon credit history. If the City thinks evictions are an issue now just wait to see what the city will look like if Owners cannot lawfully screen their tenants and deny those with a bad credit history...
VI. Rental Payment Resources-
Given the limitations on the Owners ability to collect rent from non paying Tenants you might want to share some resources available to them, as provided earlier this week but important enough to share again :)
LIST OF RESOURCES
Apply for a one shot deal
https://a069-access.nyc.gov/accesshra/#/
Apply for Rental Assistance programs
https://access.nyc.gov/applications-forms/#section-1
Info and Resources for Tenants impacted by COVID
https://www1.nyc.gov/content/tenantresourceportal/pages/
City FEPS
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hra/downloads/pdf/CITYFEPS/CITYFEPS-fact-sheet.pdf
HEAP-Energy Assistance program available 10/1/20
https://otda.ny.gov/programs/heap/contacts/
NYCHA Self/Serve Portal
https://selfserve.nycha.info/nycha/app/eservice/enu?SWECmd=Start
HRA/Ongoing rental assistance
https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03115