City passes new identity disclosure rules for residential landlords

New York City landlords must now register the names of all individuals with 25 percent or greater ownership stakes in the corporations that own their residential buildings, according to new legislation passed unanimously by the City Council yesterday. They will also have to register a brick-and-mortar office location with the city, as opposed to providing an address of a mail handling facility. The new law is intended to crack down on so-called “phantom landlords,” who hide behind corporate entities and make it difficult for their tenants to track them down, Crain’s reported. Tenants in many rundown equity-owned buildings have in recent years “struggled to get negligent landlords to make necessary repairs and provide essential services,” said David Hanzel, the deputy director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, in a statement. But the new law will give such tenants “access to the names and contact information of the principal partners of these corporate entities that are increasingly the owners of our city’s residential buildings,” Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito said. [Crain’s]