The enforcement process begins when a tenant makes a complaint to HPD’s Central Complaint Bureau, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. Roughly 60 percent of the 300,000 calls the Bureau receives every year are from tenants complaining that building owners are not providing adequate heat and/or hot water. The other 40 percent are complaints about inadequate maintenance and repair, such as peeling lead paint, broken plaster, and rodent infestation.
An inspector is sent to observe the reported condition.
If an inspector finds conditions that violate the Housing Maintenance Code, HPD sends the building owner a Notice of Violation (NOV), which directs the owner to correct the violations by a specified “Correction Date” and to certify that he or she has made the corrections by returning an attached certification form by the specified “Certification Date.”
According to the Housing Maintenance Code, Class C violations must be corrected within twenty-four hours.The NOV states that the landlord is subject to penalties if the violations are not corrected and certified as corrected by the specified dates. Additional fines, penalties, and/or imprisonment are also prescribed for false correction certifications. The Housing Maintenance Code classifies violations as either class A, B, or C, depending upon the hazard involved. The time period allowed for correcting the violations and for certifying that the corrections have been made, and the penalty prescribed for not correcting them, differ according to the class of violation. For example, those violations deemed immediately hazardous are designated as “Class C” violations. According to the Housing Maintenance Code, Class C violations must be corrected within twenty-four hours. A summary of the three classes of violations is presented below.
The City’s Administrative Code specifies that to enforce penalties against owners who do not correct and certify the correction of violations, HPD must initiate litigation and obtain judgments against the owners in the Housing Part of the Civil Court. Litigation also must be initiated to penalize owners who falsely certify the correction of violations. Because HPD does not have the legal staff to take landlords to court for every NOV issued, it has difficulty penalizing landlords for not correcting violations. HPD has for the past 12 years unsuccessfully sought State legislation that would grant it the power to adjudicate NOVs in the same way that NYC’s Parking Violations Bureau adjudicates parking violations. Such legislation would allow HPD to impose, docket, and enforce civil penalties for violations without requiring it to go to Housing Court to obtain a judgment.
Although it is difficult for HPD to penalize landlords who do not correct violations, the Administrative Code does give HPD authority to correct the violations, to ensure that tenants do not live in dangerous housing conditions. According to the Administrative Code, HPD can correct those conditions that are “dangerous to human life and safety or detrimental to health.” To correct dangerous housing conditions, HPD, through its Emergency Repair Program (ERP), hires a contractor or assigns its own employees to make the repair. HPD notifies the Department of Finance of the cost of the repair (including a 15% HPD service charge). The Department of Finance bills the owner. If the owner fails to pay the bill within 60 days, a lien is placed on the property.
It is estimated that in 2007, HPD billed owners over $50 million for the cost of emergency repairs. The DOF recoups roughly 70% of the amounts billed.
SUMMARY OF THE THREE CLASSES OF
HOUSING CODE VIOLATIONS
CLASS “A” NON-HAZARDOUS Examples:
- No peephole in the entrance door of the dwelling unit;
- Keeping of pigeons, chickens, etc. unlawfully;
- Improper seat for a water closet;
- No street number on the front of the dwelling
- Must be corrected 90 days from the mailing of the NOV.
- Certification of Correction is required 14 days after this Correction Date.
$10 to $50 per violation per day, from the required correction date until the violation is actually corrected.
CLASS “B” HAZARDOUS Examples:
- Inadequate lighting facilities for public halls or stairs;
- Owner has not provided an approved smoke detector in dwelling unit;
- Unlawful bars or gates on windows opening to fire escapes
- Must be corrected 30 days from the mailing of the NOV.
- Certification of correction is required five days after this Correction Date.
$25 to $100, plus $10 per day, from required correction date until the violation is actually corrected.
CLASS “C” IMMEDIATELY HAZARDOUS Examples:
- Inadequate supply of heat and hot water
- Rodents
- Peeling lead paint in dwellings where a child under 7 resides
- Broken or defective plumbing fixtures*
- Defective plaster*
- Defective faucets
- Must be corrected twenty four hours from the mailing of the NOV.
- Certification of correction is required five days after this Correction Date.
- $50 per violation per day for buildings with 5 or fewer units; $50 to $150 per violation, plus $125 per violation per day for buildings with more than five units;
- Heat and Hot Water Violations: $250 per violation per day;
- Illegal Device on Central Heating System: $25 per day or $1,000, whichever is more.
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ReplyDeletewhat about tenants who falsely accuse a landlord when they are correcting the problem? especially when the landlord has had to call 911 three times on the tenant for harassement and violation of the house code of conduct and decency?
ReplyDelete