Q&A
HPD's concerns and areas for improvement in the proposed bill
0:32:35
·
7 min
Deputy Commissioner Kim Darga explains HPD's specific concerns about the proposed legislation (Intro 1063) while acknowledging areas of agreement. She highlights several key issues that need refinement.
- Outreach and notification processes are seen as potentially confusing and infeasible in some cases
- Payment plan options in the proposed bill are viewed as too complex and inconsistent with other property owners' options
- Corrective action plan requirements are considered insufficient in later stages of foreclosure
- Timeline extensions in multiple parts of the process could significantly lengthen the overall duration
- Concerns about the proposal for a single point person for the entire city of New York
Kim Darga
0:32:35
Yeah.
0:32:35
So there are a couple areas.
0:32:37
I I think overall, we're very pleased to see the council introduce legislation to reform the program.
0:32:47
And this has been a long time coming.
0:32:49
We haven't had you know, the tax link sale was just reauthorize, and we haven't we didn't have the that option as tax enforcement for many years.
0:32:59
And TPT has essentially been on hold since the last round, so basically since the beginning of 2019, late 2018.
0:33:10
So we're really pleased to see that we are hoping to move forward and that there's interest with city council on doing so.
0:33:19
I think we really the the the new recommendations or legislation where we think it largely gets it right is in terms of eligibility and selection.
0:33:33
The the proposal pretty closely aligns with the working group recommendations.
0:33:39
There's a lot of analysis that goes behind that.
0:33:43
Some areas where we think we just need to do some work to refine still.
0:33:49
Outreach, we go from the current law, which has one required notice of property owners, which is the notice of foreclosure, to dozens dozens of notices to not just property owners, but every resident, interested parties, posting information on the website, and not just doing it at, like, you know, a couple strategic moments, but doing it many, many, many, many times.
0:34:23
We are really concerned that some of this notice could create undue alarm and confusion.
0:34:31
If it is proceeding the in rem action, especially for residents, And we are concerned that some of the requirements are not just create confusion but are infeasible and would not potentially work the way we would expect counsel thought they would.
0:34:55
So for example, personal service.
0:34:59
There's a couple times of personal service in there.
0:35:01
There's requirements to mail to every resident.
0:35:05
We certainly currently do not have the mailing addresses of every resident in these buildings.
0:35:11
So there's some issues like that where I think we understand the intent, and I think the intent we probably agree on.
0:35:19
I think there's questions in terms of when and how we can best do that outreach to make sure that the interested parties know.
0:35:30
We also think in terms of payment plans that the the legislation has currently drafted continue as a pretty complex system and structure where The payment options are dictated within statute.
0:35:48
They're not aligned with what every other property owner in New York City has available to them, and it changes over the course of the interim proceeding.
0:35:56
And so for a property owner that's trying to figure out how to address their tax liability.
0:36:02
It's a constantly shifting landscape for them.
0:36:06
And so we really do believe and this was a strong recommendation of the working group as well that we need simplicity, at least up until an ability to align with the options that are available to every other property owner, at least up until there's an actual judgment of foreclosure.
0:36:28
With regard to corrective action plans, I think so there's kind of 2 stages I'd like to talk about.
0:36:37
First, we think that initially a requirement related to a corrective action plan doesn't really align with the recommendation to streamline options and initial stages of the interim action.
0:36:54
And make it, again, consistent with what owners have outside of an interim action.
0:37:00
In the latter stages, we don't think it's sufficient to actually just submit a corrective action plan.
0:37:06
So once there's a judgment of foreclosure, we would argue that we need to see proof.
0:37:12
Right?
0:37:12
If we've gone all the way to a a judgment of foreclosure and owners not paid or meant made a payment agreement, at that point in time, they have to actually demonstrate that they have addressed the issues, not just indicate that they will address the issues.
0:37:27
So we would go a step farther there.
0:37:31
There's a couple other smaller things that we would wanna work with counsel on.
0:37:38
There are a number of places where the timelines are longer than in the current statute.
0:37:46
And I think we're open to talking about those timelines, but we are concerned that this the overall impact of lengthening the the timeline in multiple places in the law is that the process will potentially double in duration And that's even after there's a judgment of foreclosure.
0:38:14
So currently, the statute, there's from the judgment of foreclosure, the actual transfer needs to occur 8 months later, and there is a 45 day council review period that tolls or pauses that period.
0:38:32
Under the current legislation, that time frame is extended to an entire year, and the council review period is also extended 90 days.
0:38:42
So we potentially go from, let's say, every council takes the full for council review period 9.5 months to approximately 15 15 months.
0:38:53
And again, I think for, you know, what we've seen historically is that the buildings owners that can pay generally pay and get out in the initial stages.
0:39:04
And that the properties toward the end are far less likely to pay because they are facing issues in their buildings that are much more substantial and that the impact of lengthening that time frame maybe to keep residents in unstable situations longer.
0:39:24
So that's something I think is worth discussing in more depth.
0:39:30
And I think we're open to the concept of having designated point people.
0:39:34
I think it is complex to think about having one point person for the entire city of New York.
0:39:39
So I think we just need to talk through just how that works best to make sure that owners that are, you know, are trying to pay or enter a payment agreement, how they make sure they can get to the right person.
0:39:52
So I think those are the broad areas.
0:39:54
Again, I I think with regard to intent, There's a lot here we agree with.
0:39:59
It's really the kind of the fine details that we need to work with.
