With complaints about lack of heat having been on the rise throughout the winter, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio applauds the City Council’s passage of the Heat Enforcement for All Tenants (HEAT) Act.  Sponsored by the Public Advocate, the HEAT Act will toughen penalties on landlords who repeatedly fail to provide heat to tenants.

“We don’t want a single New York family to face another brutal winter without heat,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “We are changing the economics so that landlords will think twice before turning off their tenants’ heat just to save money.”

“This bill sends a clear message to bad owners that heat and hot water are necessities that cannot be neglected,” stated Council Member Erik Martin Dilan, Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings. “If you’re a good landlord you have nothing to worry about, the bill won’t affect you at all. But if you’re looking to not live up to your responsibilities, you’re going to pay the price.”

Public Advocate de Blasio applauds Speaker Quinn, Housing Chair Dilan and members of the City Council for their work to pass the HEAT Act.

So far this winter, the City has received more than 172,000 complaints about heat from tenants according to the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The HEAT Act will increase penalties on repeat offenders who are issued multiple heat violations. The current law allows for a maximum fine of $500 per unit, per day for a first violation and a maximum fine of $1,000 per unit, per day for subsequent violations in the same building within the same calendar year. The HEAT Act will extend those higher fines to a full two years, rather than one year under current law.

Public Advocate de Blasio tracks landlords failing to provide heat on NYC’s Worst Landlords Watch List. View the list of 71 buildings with open heat violations at: www.advocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist-heat

(YWN Desk – NYC)