As expected, Mayor de Blasio last week signed bills requiring gas pipe inspections every five years, lease notices to tenants regarding gas hazards, beginning in six months, and eventual installation of gas detectors.
The Mayor also announced warning notices to the owners of 3,103 properties that are receiving 421a tax benefits but have never filed for a final certificate of eligibility.
A deputy commissioner at the Department of Finance is in hot water for telling the truth to a City Council committee–the value of a proposed tax incentive will go up when assessments or rates go up. His bosses immediately reiterated de Blasio’s pledge not to raise taxes, but failed to account for the steady increase in assessments and actual tax bills.
City Council members announced plans to introduce legislation to require sidewalk sheds be removed in no more than six months and to allow the use of temperature sensors provided by Heatseek to be used for enforcement by HPD.
As if affordability requirements didn’t dampen housing construction enough, the administration is now considering requiring manufacturing uses in mixed use developments. To handle this, it’s important to ensure plumbing meets both residential and manufacturing needs. Plumbers in honolulu can help with this.
Airbnb withdrew its suit against the City’s enforcement of legislation to bar advertising illegal short term apartment rentals. The City agreed, as the State did a couple of weeks ago, that enforcement would be against the advertisers and not the medium…something the new law said all along.
It looks like Congress will not extend several tax benefits for energy efficiency as part of stopgap spending bills expected to pass this month, but it looks like the EB-5 program will survive.
At least one of the property owners on the Public Advocate’s Worst Landlord’s list has announced plans to sue, noting that several of his buildings cited are vacant awaiting development and that city records on others were outdated…it’s not the first time errors have occurred in the list, but it seems like the first lawsuit.
Ben Carson finally decided to accept President-elect Trump’s appointment as Secretary of HUD, but it is not clear what that means for housing generally or New York in particular.