NYC dragging feet on vacant apartment inspections law, councilmembers say

Several city councilmembers are urging Mayor Eric Adams' administration to finally implement a nearly 2-year-old law requiring the city’s housing agency to inspect vacant apartments after neighbors complain of rats, leaks, open windows and other hazards.

The Council passed the measure in December 2023. It allows residents to make 311 complaints that trigger inspections of empty units in their buildings, including apartments being deliberately held off the market — a tactic known as “warehousing.” Councilmembers negotiated with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to begin enforcement at the start of this year.

But officials from HPD and the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation, tasked with setting up the 311 complaint tool, have yet to actually implement the measure.

Last week, four councilmembers demanded the agencies stop dragging their feet.

“Ensuring residents can report hazardous conditions in their buildings is a core public safety function and should not be deprioritized for the sake of administrative efficiency,” the councilmembers wrote in a letter shared with Gothamist.

The letter was signed by Councilmembers Jennifer Gutiérrez, Pierina Sanchez, Carlina Rivera and Gale Brewer, all Democrats. They said the delay “undermines the purpose of the law: to give residents a clear, accessible way to report unoccupied units that threaten the health and safety of their buildings.”

Under the law, the housing agency is supposed to contact the property owner after receiving a complaint and schedule an inspection within three weeks.

Gutiérrez said the vacant apartments can create nightmares for tenants in neighboring units, as rats, birds and human intruders enter open or unlocked windows and leaking pipes flood downstairs apartments or lead to dangerous mold blooms.

She blamed a slow contracting process for the holdup.

“Technology should speed up protections, not slow them down,” she said. “Every day the city delays implementing the law puts tenants’ health and safety at risk.”

HPD spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said agency officials are “working diligently to go through the necessary budgeting, contracting and procurement processes and are making steady progress.” Office of Technology and Innovation spokesperson Ray Legendre said the agency plans to introduce a number of new 311 features, including the vacant apartment complaint option.

Agency officials opposed the measure in 2023, arguing that a separate reporting tool would divert money and inspectors from other types of enforcement.

The measure addresses a contentious topic: Few housing issues spark as much outrage as the notion of apartments sitting empty during an affordable housing crisis.

Tenant groups and some elected officials accuse landlords of “warehousing” rent-stabilized apartments — where rents are capped and annual increases determined by a board of mayoral appointees — to protest regulations or fuel a housing shortage. Landlords counter that the cost of renovating the units to bring them up to code far exceeds how much they will earn in rent. They have used the issue to lobby for changes to a 2019 state law prohibiting owners from raising rents on vacant units.

A 2023 report by the city’s Independent Budget Office identified more than 13,000 rent-stabilized apartments that sat empty for at least two years, based on information submitted to the state’s housing agency. But city officials say the problem is far overstated and cite HPD’s own survey data showing that fewer than 2,500 rent-stabilized units priced below $1,000 a month were being held off the market last year.

In April 2023, the city instituted a program to give landlords of vacant rent-stabilized apartments up to $50,000 to cover the cost of renovations if they agree to rent the unit to a person using a housing voucher.

So far, just one landlord has completed an application, according to HPD data. The agency did not approve the application because the landlord failed to complete additional steps, a spokesperson said.