Two bills, sponsored by Council Member Oliver Koppell, were the subject of a special hearing conducted by the Council Committees on Housing and Fire & Criminal Justice on Tuesday, June 7, 2011.
The hearing was convened after a number of recent fatal fires in illegally converted multiple dwellings. Two measures were considered.
The first bill, of which Council Member Oliver Koppell is the prime sponsor, would require the Department of Buildings (DOB) to obtain a court order to enter a residential building when there has been a complaint of illegal conversion, and where two attempts have failed to provide the DOB inspectors with entry.
The genesis of the bill was Koppell’s frustration at finding out, after following up on complaints from constituents in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx about an illegal conversion, that it was the practice of the DOB to abandon attempts to inspect allegedly illegal premises after two unsuccessful attempts by its inspectors to gain entry.
“I felt this was outrageous,” Koppell said. “There had to be a mechanism by which DOB inspectors could gain access to a building after a complaint about illegal conversion. My bill requiring the DOB to obtain a court order directing access would provide this mechanism.”
The second bill, of which Koppell is a co-sponsor, would allow DOB or any other law enforcement agency the authority to issue a summons or notice of violation for illegal residential conversions based on readily observable circumstantial evidence, which may include multiple mailboxes, a large number of operational utility meters, or multiple doorbells.
The problems highlighted by the Koppell legislation, as well as the recent fires, induced Mayor Bloomberg to create a multi-agency task force, chaired by Chief Policy Advisor Feinblatt, to tackle this problem.
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