Q&A
Addressing challenges with access agreements and neighbor disputes
3:20:49
·
3 min
Council Member Restler raises concerns about increasing complaints related to access agreements, particularly for tenant protection plans and Local Law 11 compliance. Commissioner Oddo and his team acknowledge the issue and discuss potential legislative solutions.
- Restler highlights cases where neighbors make it difficult to perform necessary work or construction
- DOB officials mention support for state legislation to clarify and improve the court process for gaining access
- Restler suggests exploring a mandated mediation process for resolving neighbor disputes
Lincoln Restler
3:20:49
The I'm getting and I I would imagine cast member brewer is as well.
3:20:56
Increasing complaints about access agreements.
3:21:00
And I think it's tenant protection plan stuff.
3:21:02
I think it's local 11 stuff.
3:21:04
Where neighbors are making it impossible to do the work that's necessary.
3:21:11
And they've got their neighbor over a barrel who's trying to do basic upkeep construction necessary work in their home, and we don't have the and I think there was were all well intentioned laws.
3:21:21
And I don't know if the chair has started to think about this yet.
3:21:24
But I'm very interested in exploring some legislation here because I don't think we have the right we've reached the right balance.
3:21:30
And I'll tell you about a site in my in in in it was just redistributed out of my area, but we've got an empty lot for 15 years.
3:21:40
I banged my head against the wall with CAS.
3:21:42
He's amazing.
3:21:43
We're trying to get it activated.
3:21:45
They determined that the that the construction at the empty lot was so messed up.
3:21:49
They need a demolition.
3:21:50
They need to demolish the adjacent brownstone.
3:21:54
The brownstone owner is willing you know, understands this is the reality.
3:21:57
We can't get the brownstone next to her to agree to the access agreement, to demolish it.
3:22:02
And I could give these, you know, 1000 different examples of this, But is this on your radar?
3:22:07
And what are you what are you thinking about?
Jimmy Oddo
3:22:09
Very much so.
3:22:10
So when when the we talked about the get shuts down, or when it was announced.
3:22:17
And we Barr president Levine has the great idea about a a fund because there are some property owners who legitimately don't have the money, and the shed is cheaper than doing the underlying work.
3:22:30
What we've discovered, and assistant commissioner Ygal Shamasch could give you in detail what we've discovered, and then enhanced or underscored by conversations with the industry is that what is now eclipsing in terms of time the lack of resources, what is now probably a bigger variable in it is this issue.
3:22:51
Back in the day when I was an elected we call them neighbor on neighbor issues.
3:22:54
They were the worst.
3:22:55
They were the hardest cases.
3:22:56
Right?
3:22:57
So we raised this issue at one of our quarterly meetings with the industry.
3:23:02
Happen to be with folks from Remedy.
3:23:05
And the folks from Remedy said there's a piece of legislation up in Albany that we're that we're championing for access.
3:23:13
It's a Raj Kumar bill with com councilor or Camry.
3:23:18
Do you wanna talk about Any aspect of the camera?
Guillermo Patino
3:23:24
Yes.
3:23:24
The commissioner mentioned is a state legislation that we're supportive of.
3:23:28
We're currently on a memo in support of that legislation, and it seeks to clarify and inject more transparency into the court process regarding gaining access.
3:23:37
But as you mentioned, this is also a question that we're actively thinking about internally at DOB.
3:23:42
So we'd love to discuss it further received than anything we can work on I
Lincoln Restler
3:23:46
would love to chat with you further.
3:23:47
My initial thinking was, if we can't get these neighbor if we can't get neighbors to agree, then to force some sort of mediated process that is that they are mandated to cooperate and comply with.
3:24:00
And whether that and I so I'd like to just I I I don't need to share my legislative thoughts I've been hearing today any further than I already have.
3:24:08
But I just want to say, I'm I'm very concerned about this as a growing issue.
3:24:12
It sounds like you are too.
3:24:13
Yeah.
3:24:15
Thank you, as always, commissioner.