Mayor Eric Adams faces potential fines for failing to register his Brooklyn rental property with the city’s housing agency last year — the latest in a string of violations at the building, according to public records.
Under city law, landlords must file registration statements with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development once a year spelling out details about properties where they charge rent from tenants. The requirement is meant to make it easier for the agency to keep tabs on rental properties and ensure they’re in good condition and in compliance with all applicable laws.
Yet, Adams was hit this past Nov. 21 with a violation for failing to submit a registration form for his rowhouse on Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which contains multiple units he’s renting out to tenants, Housing Preservation and Development records show. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is charged with maintaining the city’s affordable housing stock.
The violation, which remains open, states Adams’ previous registration on the property expired Sept. 1, meaning the building has as of this week sat unregistered for more than four months.
“[Adams] is therefore subject to civil penalties, prohibited from certifying violations, and denied the right to recover possession of premises for nonpayment of rent until a valid registration statement is filed,” the violation says.
Landlords who fail to register their buildings on time can face fines of between $250-$500 per violation, per city law.
A City Hall spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News on Tuesday on whether a fine has been imposed on Adams. HPD did not immediately return a request for comment, either.
November’s registration snafu isn’t the first time Adams has faced registration issues at his Bed-Stuy digs.
As first reported by The News, the Lafayette Avenue building went without Housing Preservation and Development registration status for 12 years — from 2009 until 2021.
Even though Adams campaign spokesman Evan Thies said in 2021 that he would “update the registration immediately,” the mayor failed again in 2022 to register the building before its permit expired, resulting in another violation.
Since becoming mayor, Adams has also been slapped with nearly a half dozen summonses for alleged rat infestations at the Bed-Stuy building. He has gotten multiple of those summonses dismissed after appearing before administrative judges to make the case that he’s doing everything he can to eradicate four-legged pests at his property.
According to his latest tax return, Adams collected $19,850 in rental income from the Bed-Stuy building in 2022.
That’s markedly less than the $24,600 he raked in 2021, a drop Adams spokesman Charles Lutvak earlier this year attributed to the fact that one of the mayor’s tenants only payed rent “intermittently” in 2022. Lutvak would not elaborate on why the tenant isn’t paying rent regularly.
The registration of the Lafayette Avenue property first landed in the headlines in 2021 after news reports raised questions about whether Adams truly lived there during the mayoral race he went on to win.
Beyond the registration issues, records show one of Adams’ tenants on Lafayette Avenue filed a complaint with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development this past Oct. 9 complaining there was “no heat” in their unit.
The department closed the complaint without issuing any fines, though, because an inspector “was not able to gain access to your apartment or others in the building to inspect for a lack of heat or hot water,” an entry in the agency’s database says.
“If the condition still exists, please file a new complaint,” the entry adds.
___
© 2024 New York Daily News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
