A bill that would require property owners to pay for tenant relocation costs when a building is shut down for safety violations has been resurrected after it had gone nowhere in the City Council during the Bloomberg administration. Councilwoman Margaret Chin, D-Manhattan, introduced the bill Tuesday, which seeks to make building owners pick up the tab when residents are barred from returning home because of a fire or illegal or dangerous conditions. Last year, the city's Department of Buildings, just one of several agencies with this power, issued 1,496 partial-vacate orders that shut down a portion of a building and 346 full-vacate orders, though in both cases, some of the orders may reflect multiple violations at the same property.
The previous iteration of Ms. Chin's bill languished for nearly three years in the council before it officially died at the end of the old administration. A number of the bill's original co-sponsors now hold prominent positions in the City Council. They include Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, D-Manhattan—who wields the ultimate power to make or break legislation—and Councilman Jumaane Williams, D-Brooklyn, who chairs the Committee on Housing and Buildings, which would serve as the vehicle for Ms. Chin's proposal. Neither office commented on the bill. In addition, Mayor Bill de Blasio has also made housing and tenants' rights a cornerstone of his fledging administration.
A major source of infractions in Chinatown and elsewhere is the presence of illegal apartments, according to Ms. Chin. Her district, which includes Chinatown, was the site of three major vacate orders last year in which multi-family buildings were emptied out by city edict.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140206/REAL_ESTATE/140209922/landlords-could-be-on-hook-for-tenant-costs
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