Int. No. 59-A

By Council Members Cornegy, Lancman, Kallos, Rosenthal, Perkins, Rivera and Ayala

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to required disclosures by persons making buyout offers

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Subparagraph f-2 of paragraph 48 of subdivision a of section 27-2004 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by local law number 82 of 2015, is amended to read as follows:

f-2. contacting any person lawfully entitled to occupancy of such dwelling unit to offer money or other valuable consideration to induce such person to vacate such dwelling unit or to surrender or waive any rights in relation to such occupancy, unless such owner discloses to such person in writing (i) at the time of the initial contact, and (ii) in the event that contacts continue more than 180 days after the prior written disclosure, at the time of the first contact occurring more than 180 days after the prior written disclosure:

(1) the purpose of such contact,

(2) that such person may reject any such offer and may continue to occupy such dwelling unit,

(3) that such person may seek the guidance of an attorney regarding any such offer and may, for information on accessing legal services, refer to The ABCs of Housing guide on the department’s website, 

(4) that such contact is made by or on behalf of such owner, [and]

(5) that such person may, in writing, refuse any such contact and such refusal would bar such contact for 180 days, except that the owner may contact such person regarding such an offer if given express permission by a court of competent jurisdiction or if notified in writing by such person of an interest in receiving such an offer[;],

(6)(i) the median asking rent for a dwelling unit in the same community district, provided that the department has reported such data pursuant to section 27-2096.2, within the previous twelve-month period; or (ii) the median asking rent for a dwelling unit in the same community district with the same number of bedrooms, provided that the department has reported such data, pursuant to section 27-2096.2, within the previous twelve-month period,

(7) that there is no guarantee that such person will be able to rent a dwelling unit in the same community district with the same number of bedrooms as the dwelling unit that such person is currently lawfully entitled to occupancy of, for the same rent such person is paying at the time of such contact, and

(8) that additional factors may impact the ability of such person to rent a dwelling unit, including, but not limited to, the current employment and credit history of such person;

                     § 2. Article 1 of subchapter 4 of chapter 2 of title 27 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 27-2096.2 to read as follows:

                     § 27-2096.2 Median asking rents. By no later than September 1, 2019 and by September 1 of every year thereafter, the commissioner shall, upon the availability of a statistically significant and representative sample of data, submit to the mayor and the speaker of the council, and publish online, a listing of median asking rents for dwelling units, disaggregated by community district and, if such data is available in a statistically significant and representative sample, by the number of bedrooms.

§ 3. This local law takes effect on October 15, 2019, except that section 2 shall take effect immediately.

JW / BM/GZ

Int 1105-2016 / LS 6898

LS# 929

4.30.19 5:50 pm