New York City's Housing Preservation Department Commissioner, Vicki Been, has published this week her own list that identifies 250 multi-family buildings with a combined 25,000-plus hazardous violations.
These hazardous violations include inadequate fire exits, lead-based paints, presence of rats, lack of heat, hot water, electricity, or gas. Other minor violations include peeling of paint and small leaks.
The Housing Preservation Department's annual list, which is also known as the Alternative Enforcement Program, is targeting buildings that have more than 15 units and have at least three open hazardous violations issued per unit within the past five years. The list also includes properties with three and 14 units that has already had five violations per unit within the same time period.
One of the buildings that is included on the list is at 90 Elizabeth Street, where the tenants sued landlord James Fong last Summer for failing to make repairs, reported the New York Observer.
If building or property owners do not address violations, they will be fined with hefty penalties. The buildings on the list owe the city more than $980,000 for the violations. The HPD has also taken 224 owners of 138 buildings that are on the list to court, the HPD commissioner said in a press release.
According to the list, Brooklyn has the most units with violations, which is numbering about 1,373 units in 121 buildings. It is followed by Bronx with 1,045 units in 47 buildings, and Manhattan with about 1,101 units in 67 buildings. Queens has 94 units in 11 buildings, while Staten Island has 91 units in four buildings.
On the other hand, the city's public advocate, Letitia James, has been criticized for what some have deemed her effort lackluster in publishing its annual "worst landlords of NYC" list earlier this week.
One of the landlords who appeared on the list is saying that his building is being renovated and that he doesn't have any unhappy tenants - because there's no one occupying the building.
