Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rachel Geballe, Deputy Director of the Neighborhood Economic Justice Project at Brooklyn Legal Services
0:15:27
·
6 min
Rachel Geballe from Brooklyn Legal Services testified about issues with the NYC tax lien sale process, focusing on three main areas: difficulties in resolving water lien debts with DEP, problems with the implementation of the "easy exit" program, and challenges for homeowners dealing with complex property issues like deed theft and intestacy.
- Water debts are particularly difficult to resolve, with unfavorable repayment plans and long wait times to speak with DEP representatives.
- The "easy exit" program, intended to help homeowners with complex issues, is not being properly implemented or communicated to those who need it.
- Homeowners facing issues like deed theft, partition scams, and probate matters are struggling to access protective programs due to DOF and DEP staff misunderstandings and lack of accessibility.
Rachel Geballe
0:15:27
Good morning, co chairs and members of the tax lien task force.
0:15:30
My name is Rachel Jabal, and I am deputy director of the Neighborhood Economic Justice Project at Brooklyn Legal Services, a program of legal services NYC, the nation's largest provider of civil legal legal services.
0:15:44
Our 10 homeowner advocate attorneys and two paralegals assist hundreds of homeowners each year with complex legal problems, including tax and water debts and foreclosure lawsuits that are brought by the n c NYCTL trust.
0:15:58
And we talk to hundreds more through outreach events and at court.
0:16:04
Thank you for inviting me to address the recommendations of the task force and additional considerations in furtherance of the task force's goals established by the twenty twenty four city council authorizing legislation of promoting homeownership and reducing the risk that tax liens are sold repeatedly or even one time into the city's NYCTL trusts.
0:16:26
The best way for the city to preserve homeownership is to prevent liens from being sold into the NYCTL trusts in the first place.
0:16:35
Once a homeowner's debt is sold, it is much more difficult for that homeowner to resolve the debt, and the risk of the loss of homeowners homeownership is substantially higher.
0:16:46
I'm going to briefly mention three topics today.
0:16:49
One, the difficulty in resolving water lien debts with DEP.
0:16:54
Two, the problems with the implementation of easy exit.
0:16:58
And three, the difficulties for homeowners dealing with deed theft, partition scams, intestacy, probate, and title issues.
0:17:07
I'm going to discuss these items because they are topics that this task force can make recommendations about, and they implicate homeownership for the city's most vulnerable homeowners.
0:17:18
Legal services advocates have repeatedly, over the course of many years and many reauthorizations, testified and provided evidence that the lien sale harms the city's most vulnerable homeowners.
0:17:29
This continues to be true despite many collaborative efforts between DOF and DEP and this council and advocates to enact legislation to mitigate the known harms to this very harsh program.
0:17:42
So first, water debts.
0:17:44
Water debts are very difficult to resolve.
0:17:47
More than half of the at risk properties this year on the city's lien sell list are water only.
0:17:54
Water debts that have have not been sold since 02/2019 and some of the arrearages are very high.
0:18:01
The most favorable water repayment plan offered is payments that are spread over one hundred and twenty months with no consideration of affordability.
0:18:10
There is no application.
0:18:12
There's no official application to DEP that will account for that homeowner's income.
0:18:18
There is no PTA program, and one hundred one one hundred twentieth of people's debt is often well over what they can afford.
0:18:28
DEP reports that the wait times for to speak to an advocate over the phone have been stretching for days or even weeks.
0:18:36
Second, easy exit is not working as planned.
0:18:40
The goal for the easy exit was to provide an easy off ramp for properties with complexities that could not be resolved in the limited period before the lien sale, and your Co Chair mentioned that in your opening remarks.
0:18:52
However, this new off ramp is not working as planned.
0:18:56
According to homeowners that we have met at DOF outreach events, DOF staff are pushing unaffordable repayment without describing easy exit as an option.
0:19:06
DUF has inexplicably prevented eligible homeowners whose homes are in a trust from benefiting from easy exit.
0:19:15
The easy exit denial email does not provide a way for homeowners to appeal a denial without running into a password protected page.
0:19:24
Easy Exit is not available for homeowners facing deed theft or other scams.
0:19:29
Instead, these homeowners must contact DOF through specific email addresses, each for a different type of problem which are not published on the website or made available to homeowners and are only made available to advocates on in a an ad hoc manner.
0:19:46
This is consistent with UF's pattern of the failure effectuate other protective pieces of legislation, including Local Law 147 of 2013, which created the other eligible person an heir entitled to enter into an installment agreement on the same terms as a homeowner and the legislation that created PTAID.
0:20:07
DOF thrives as a collection agency but stumbles in its efforts to make protective programs available to the people who need them.
0:20:15
And finally, trust structures, deed thefts, partition scams, title issues, and deaths in the family make resolution of city liens very difficult.
0:20:25
The city's new regime of reforms, while often well intentioned, are not accessible to homeowners who are dealing with these types of issues.
0:20:33
DOF and DEP staff often misunderstand descent by intestacy and the role of the surrogates court and deny heirs or beneficiaries who are in fact owners of their properties by operation of law or will to tax exemptions and other benefits to which they are entitled.
0:20:50
Deed thefts, scams, trusts, title defects, and intestacy are extremely prevalent in the communities most impacted by the lien sale.
0:20:59
These presentations, which can take skilled advocates years to resolve, should be predictable to DOF and DEP staff who should be prepared by the city to address them.
0:21:10
And this is exactly why the Easy Exit Program was created.
0:21:14
The city still has time to work with DOF and DEP staff to ensure that this program is as broad as it was intended to be and helps as many homeowners as possible to avoid the harms of the lien sale.
0:21:27
Thank you.