Toxic mold is back. The Appellate Division, First Department, held this week in Cornell v. 360 W. 51st St. that scientific arguments could be presented for mold-induced health problems. The court held that prior decisions dismissing mold cases for relying on junk science didn’t preclude new arguments or expert testimony.

The Economic Development Corporation has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest to develop 46 acres on Staten Island suitable for residential uses, with some rehab of historic buildings possible. Past efforts to sell the site exclusively for educational projects stumbled. Now the city is willing to see what the market will do.

In case you missed it, a Wall Street Journal blog post had a good overview of the legal issues in the constitutional challenge to rent control by upper West Side property owner James Harmon. First, of course, the Supreme Court has to decide whether to hear the merits at all.

It was a good news, bad news forecast from the city’s independent budget office this week. The IBO expects the city to gain 22,000 net jobs in 2012, but lose 4800 more jobs on Wall Street that, of course, are the best paying jobs that help drive the economy in general and housing in particular.

Join us for an ABO luncheon with James Nelson of Massey Knakal, March 21st. Invitations are in the mail.

MetLife’s 10K filed with the SEC this week has one line in a footnote referring to Roberts v. Tishman saying MTL has reached a settlement in principle with the plaintiff tenants, subject to finalizing the settlement terms and court approval.  The only comment anyone has made on the so far undisclosed settlement is that  it is for less than the $200 million originally suggested by Stuyvesant Town tenant attorneys.

DOB issued permits for 8,936 residential units in 2011, according to a NY Building Congress Report, a 33 percent increase from 2010. The number of permits issued in 2011, however, remains 74 percent below the 2008 peak of 33,911 units. Completed units are another story. Certificates of Occupancy have been issued for 22-26,000 units in each of the last five years, less than a one percent replacement rate. By contrast, the hotel inventory has been booming 5 percent a year recently. Yet, hotels are running at 85 percent occupancy and apartments are at 97percent.

The city issued a new lien list and the NY Post reported a number of data entry errors and other problems that surprised some owners who thought they were paid up. Check out your buildings.

The ABO Legal Committee will get an Albany Legislative update from Lew Dubuque, EVP of the New York State Builders Association, at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the ABO office. Please call if you would like to join us as space is limited.

A California Court of Appeals decided last week that an owner could put a timer on a hut tub and reduce sauna hours without being forced to reduce controlled rents. In Santa Monica Properties v. Santa Monica Rent Control Board the court determined that the rent control board does not have “the authority to reduce rents based upon any decrease in service, no matter how minimal, particularly if the decrease has no effect on the adequacy of housing services or compliance with health and safety codes.”

In New York, of course, the “de minimis” services policy is narrower and leads one to wonder about the future of all the Jacuzzi tubs in new high end rentals.

ABO is offering a new Registered in Apartment Management (RAM) class beginning Wednesday, March 14th. Contact Olga in our office to sign up or get more information and pass the word to any agents that might be interested.

ABO Executive Director Dan Margulies will be part of a panel on Financing Building Efficiency Tuesday morning, sponsored by the Agrion Global Network for Energy, Cleantech and Corporate Sustainability. He will be talking about why owners are reluctant to take ‘free’ money.

3-in1 and 3-for-1 ABO membership

The ABO board has decided to triple your member benefits in ABO, NYSBA and NAHB with two free affiliate memberships for others in your company. This is a $200 value and you will be getting more information in the mail next week.

The City quietly released the 2011 Housing Vacancy Report last week, finding that there was a 3.12 percent housing vacancy rate (about par for a recession), that the housing stock was up to a record 3.35 million units, and that housing conditions were the best in the 46 year history of the survey. The vacancy rate for apartments renting for over $2500 per month was 5.26 percent. There were also a record 164,000 units unavailable for sale or rent, mostly either being renovated or only used seasonally. If my math is correct, about 15,600 of the seasonal or occasional use apartments are regulated units in Manhattan.

The Appellate Division, First Department, yesterday found in Nestor v. Britt that landlords could not relocate an elderly tenant to an unregulated unit at a subsidized rent when seeking owner occupancy. The law requires relocation to an equal or superior regulated unit even though “It may be, as landlords argue, that the offer of an equivalent or superior stabilized housing unit in close proximity to tenant’s Upper East Side triplex apartment is not, realistically speaking, ‘an option in the current real estate market.’ ” Of course, that begs the question of whether that makes rent regulation unconstitutional in those neighborhoods where the rent laws prevent owner occupancy.

ABO is cosponsoring the National Realty Club lunch Thursday with Peter M. Locke, Principal, Head of Real Estate Investing at Blackacre Capital Management, LLC, the real estate arm of Cerberus Capital, a $14 billion hedge fund. ABO members pay the NRC member rate. Join us at noon at the Palm West, 250 West 50th St. Reservations required.

Greg Carlson, David Buchwalter and I ventured to Orlando last week for a RAM (Registered in Apartment Managers) Board of Governors meeting and a tour of the International Builders Show, sponsored by NAHB.

I was impressed by the smallest and largest things I saw at the show. A couple of vendors were showing a replacement electric socket that incorporates USB ports along with three-prong plugs. You can plug your I-Pod, Blackberry, cell phone, or tablet in directly, without littering the floor with adapters.

Others, including Rainwater Collections Solutions, were offering expandable polymer tanks to store storm water, up to 200,000 gallons. With New York City planning to limit storm water runoff from new buildings, developers are looking at virtual bathtubs on their roofs or creative ways to squeeze the water into other spaces. Flexible tanks and liners may be part of the answer.

Back in New York, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave a State of the City address widely believed to be the kickoff for her mayoral campaign. On housing, she said that “HPD is going to start requiring sixty year affordability in many of our biggest developments.”

She also will introduce legislation with Council Member Gale Brewer so that “Instead of just fixing water damage, landlords will have to repair the hole in the roof that’s causing it.”

It is not clear what the specifics will be, or whether the council members know that many violations are already written to require correction of underlying conditions.

Finally, there are a few seats left for our Thursday panel: Builder vs. Operator: Design that Owners and Managers can live with. Call 212 385-4949 to reserve your free seat.

Mayor Bloomberg’s 2013 budget proposal issued yesterday holds the line on tax rate increases, but anticipates 3.3 percent growth in property taxes from assessment increases. There are also a bunch of fine and fee increases, including:

More than $8 million from a new Fire Department Safety Protocol Inspection Fee, requiring City Council approval.

Another million from doubling Fire Department plan review fees.

Another million from increasing Fire Department fines enforced by the Environmental Control Board.

Another $4 million in DOB penalties for work without a permit, elevator, and boiler violations.

And another $500,000 in asbestos fines.

The State Attorney General’s Real Estate is entering the digital age, sort of. As of April 1st, condo and coop offering plans will have to be made available to prospective purchasers in digital format, if they request it, and sponsors will have to prepare a notarized paper affidavit of mailing the cd.

Anyone going to the International Builders Show in Orlando next week is invited to a New York State cocktail party Wednesday evening. Call Dan Margulies in the ABO office for details by Monday.

Sign up today for ABO’s Feb. 16th panel Builder vs. Operator. Design that Owners and Managers can live with.

Construction related accidents were down 18 percent in New York City in 2011, despite a 7.7 percent increase in construction permits. City officials credited new safety codes and government outreach programs to developers. The biggest increase in permits was for minor alterations, New building permits were only up from 1,517 to 1,523 but major alteration permits climbed 7.1 percent from 2,878 to 3,081.

A key City Council committee approved the proposed Brooklyn Skyscraper landmark district despite strong real estate industry opposition. As a tradeoff, however, there is a move to allow storefront landmark reviews citywide to be conducted more rapidly by Landmarks staff rather than through lengthy public reviews.

The Appellate Division, First Department, clarified stabilized apartment succession rights when a tenant tries to hide that they’ve moved out. In Third Lenox Terrace vs. Edwards, the tenant’s sister moved in with her in 1995 and might have been entitled to succession when the tenant moved out in 1998, but the tenant pretended to still be in the apartment and paid the rent until the owner brought a non primary action in 2005. The sister claimed succession rights. The court held that because the sister did not live together with the tenant in the apartment  for the two years immediately prior to the succession claim, 2003-2005, she was not entitled to the apartment.

It will be illegal to sell or install carpets, carpet pads  or adhesives that emit excessive volatile organic compounds, i.e. harmful chemical vapors, after July 1, 2013 according to a new city law enacted this week.

Tentative fiscal 2013 property assessments are finally online a few days late. The city’s $6 million computer that crunches the numbers was not working right, at first. Class 2 market values are up an average of  3.6 percent, but assessments are up 5.15 percent thanks in part to transitional assessment increases.

Governor Andrew Cuomo had little to say about housing in his executive budget message this week, but did propose an additional $8 million annually in Low Income Housing Tax Credits for five years. He said that equates to an additional 600 apartments a year.

Two interesting articles you may have missed this week. Crains profiled Joseph Ficarola of New York Community Bank. NYCB provides financing for 85,000 units in 3000 buildings, three times as many as any other bank in town, and has a negligible default rate. Naturally, some activists attack them for making the loans.  And Nicole Gelinas had a good column in the Post about the constitutional challenge to NY rent regulations that the Supreme Court is considering whether to consider.

Be sure to sign up for our Jan. 25th luncheon on the commercial real estate market, and look for the invitation to our Feb. 16th panel – Builder vs. Operator: Design that Owners and Managers Can Live With.

Can you say: redundant?

Amidst $25 billion or so in unfunded infrastructure spending, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed one thing in his state of the state speech this week that he can do administratively: create a new Tenant Protection Unit within the Division of Homes and Community Renewal. The unit would proactively investigate owners who may be involved in fraudulent schemes to deregulate apartments,  commence overcharge proceedings, and prosecute owners who fail to maintain basic building services.

We also have to note, as sponsors of Buildings/NY, that while NYC needs a bigger convention center, the biggest complaint we hear about the Javits Center from attendees is that it is too far away and hard to get to. Aqueduct?

The Department of Environmental Protection is holding a series of workshops over the next few weeks on online filing under the Community Right to Know law that tracks the use and storage of hazardous materials. Call 718-595-4436 for a schedule and reservations. Residential buildings without commercial or manufacturing tenants are generally exempt, but watch out if you have a dry cleaners.

An Advisory Committee to the Centers for Disease Control recommended this week that the blood lead level considered hazardous to children be lowered, potentially doubling the number of kids considered lead poisoned or at risk. Before it would have any impact here the CDC, NY City Council and Dept. of Health would all have to act, and it’s not clear what they could do. The report noted that  investigations already often fail to identify a single source or risk factor for children with low blood lead levels, and the challenge is even greater for lower level exposures . It is also not even clear whether abatement or so-called interim controls have much effect at the low levels being discussed.

Most of the carbon monoxide detectors installed more than five years ago will have to be replaced in the new year under legislation signed by the Mayor on Tuesday. The law requires building owners to replace units either within six months from the effective date of the law (120 days from signing) or when their useful life has expired, whichever is later. The typical useful life is 5 to 7 years and most detectors were installed shortly after they were first required in 2004, so time is up in most cases.

The original law required owners to keep a record of installation, so if you have the manufacturer, model, and date of installation you could look up the useful life. Under the new law, owners can charge tenants the same $25 fee for replacement as they could for a new unit, if the useful life is expired. Tenants are still responsible for ordinary maintenance.

Under national standards adopted in 2009 and the new City law, all new carbon monoxide detectors have to have an audible alarm, similar to a low battery alarm, when their useful life is expiring.