AGENCY TESTIMONY
Proposed legislation and administration's stance
0:20:16
·
176 sec
The City Register discusses two proposed bills (Introductions 888 and 901) aimed at addressing deed fraud and expresses the administration's support with some proposed amendments.
- Introduction 888 would require disclosure of property market value for unsolicited purchase offers
- The administration recommends requiring offerors to provide an itemization of seller rights and protections instead of market value assessments
- Introduction 901 would require DCWP's Office of Financial Empowerment to provide homeowner counseling
- The administration suggests leveraging existing services provided by HPD and community-based organizations
- Both bills are seen as opportunities to develop deeper partnerships between city agencies
Colette McCain-Jacques
0:20:16
Turning to today's legislation, the administration supports the intent of both bills for the consideration today with proposed amendments.
0:20:26
Introduction 888 would require DCWP to ensure that parties that make unsolicited offers to purchase residential property, provide the owners with the disclosure of the market value of the property, it would also require DCWP to establish a database of residential property market values.
0:20:49
While DCWP agrees with the goal of providing potential sellers with important information regarding their homes, especially in the case of unsolicited offers where we are concerned that an approach focused on DCWP assessing home market values would be unreliable for home sellers.
0:21:14
Instead, we recommend that the business or person making an offer to purchase a residential property to be required to provide the owner with an itemization of their rights and protections as a protective seller.
0:21:31
This would fall in line with existing practices that DCWP has successfully established in the used car paid taxpayer tax preparer, and debt collection industries.
0:21:47
Introduction 901 would require DCWP Office of Financial Empowerment to provide counseling to homeowners in coordination with HPDD's Office of the Homeowners Advocate.
0:22:01
DCWP's financial empowerment centers do not provide mortgage counseling, housing scam prevention, or home repair financing.
0:22:12
These services include legal services support are offered by HPD in collaboration with community based organizations, such as the Center For New York City Neighborhoods.
0:22:25
Our colleagues at HPD can further elaborate on the specific work.
0:22:31
The administration believes these legislation presents an exciting opportunity to develop a deeper partnership between these two agencies.
0:22:42
Leverage their respective networks to support more communities in New York City, and achieve the goals of the legislation.
0:22:49
The administration remains committed to uplifting New Yorkers as they build and protect their assets through these resources.
0:22:58
I want to thank the council for allowing me to speak today, and I hope that our testimony has given you a useful overview of where we stand regarding deep fraud.
0:23:09
I will take any questions you may have at this point.
