Call it death by a thousand recycled newspaper cuts.
Landlords say city inspectors are increasingly citing them excessively for street and building maintenance violations, driving up their expenses and creating a feeling of hopelessness in the face of mounting fines.
“Tickets have increased by five times in the past six months as opposed to the last three years,” said Zachary Kerr, executive vice president at M & R Management, which has 1,000 units in 15 rent-stabilized buildings in Brooklyn. “There isn’t much you can do.”
According to Michael Kerr, co-chairman of the Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York, (who happens to be the father of Zachary), owner complaints about increased citations have escalated dramatically in the past three to four months.
“We’ve received many more calls in the last 90 days,” Michael Kerr said.
In addition to property taxes, insurance rates, rising gas prices and the expense of heating buildings during the winter months, building owners say they are paying more in penalties. Citations generally range from $100 to $300 a violation.
In 2004, the Sanitation Department extended its citation patrols from commercial to residential properties, creating two one-hour periods each day when violations can be issued to owners for litter in front of their property. Under the Residential Enforcement Routing Program, property checks occur between 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 12 noon to 1 p.m., during which building owners must have swept the sidewalks and 18 inches into the street.
According to Sanitation Department spokesperson Cathy Dawkins, dirty sidewalk violations increased from 90,000 during the 2005 fiscal year to 140,000 during the 2006 fiscal year. Citations for recyclables mixed with non-recyclables increased from 47,000 during the 2005 fiscal year to 48,000 during the 2006 fiscal year.
“There is no quota system,” Dawkins said about the number of violations written. “If an inspector sees a violation while on patrol, they write for it.”
Dawkins attributed the increase in the number of tickets in fiscal year 2006 to the addition of the Residential Enforcement Routing Program.
According to Michael Kerr, landlords are receiving citations for improperly packaged garbage, not separating all recyclables and, in some instances, taking out garbage too early for the collection period.
Pedestrians are often the ones responsible for leaving trash in front of a building, but the citation is still given to the nearest building to pay, say building owners.
The city has been continuously shifting more and more responsibility to building owners in the past few years and increasing fines if regulations aren’t met, says Zachary Kerr.
Since June 2003, building owners face full liability for sidewalks instead of the city. Under the Sanitation Departments’ regulations, building owners are responsible for all sidewalks that line the property as well as the 18 inches into the street.
Smaller apartment buildings seem to be having the most trouble with the citations, said Michael Kerr. The landlords group doesn’t track the number of citations.
“Owners of four, six, eight units maintain their own buildings. In the morning, they do everything they are required to do and in the evening, they do it again,” he said. “But in the time between when they leave and come back, wind has blown debris, and the Sanitation Department has come by and a violation is given to the property owner.”
Pinnacle Group, a residential management company that owns 21,000 units in over 100 buildings, isn’t having an issue of excessive citations, according to its attorney Kenneth Fisher of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen.
“Staff in smaller buildings put garbage out earlier and have porters sweeping once or twice a day,” said Anton Cirulli, managing director of Lawrence Properties, a residential management company and brokerage. “Bigger buildings have numerous porters.”
Cirulli added that while some of his landlords occasionally receive a citation, he hasn’t seen it become an overall problem in his buildings.
ABOGNY suggests building owners periodically take a photo of the way they clean and put out garbage. It’s the only evidence owners have to back up that they’re keeping up with the responsibilities.
“Fighting these citations is time consuming and these violations are adjudicated in the Environmental Control Board that utilizes administrative law judges,” Michael Kerr said. “It’s hard to fight them.”
Bibi Sukhraj, property manager at management company Orgin Associates, spent a Friday morning in December awaiting a hearing with the Environmental Control Board for two tickets placed on the same building at 79 St. Marks Place for the same violation within a three-hour span. Another of her properties, 303 East 9th Street, received six tickets between August 2, 2006 and October 26, 2006, when, normally, Sukhraj says, the building would receive maybe one ticket.
Sukhraj said the company’s Downtown properties have received the most citations. Properties along 13th Street had approximately 25 tickets in the past four months with one building receiving five of the citations.
Orgin Associates, with about 700 units in 30 buildings, was still awaiting a response from the board at press time.
Building budgets are set early well in advance, so excessive tickets mean management companies lose profits when they have to cover the increased costs, building owners say.
“There are no means to recover [expenses],” Zachary Kerr said. “When you’re operating rent-stabilized buildings, there is a certain amount of increases you can impose on tenants.”
In May 2006, the city’s Rent Guidelines Board announced two-year leases in rent stabilized apartments will have rent increases of 5 to 8.5 percent and one-year leases will see an increase of 3 to 6.5 percent.
“Realistically those increases aren’t large enough to cover expenses we have to endure during the year,” Zachary Kerr said. “It could be thousands of dollars depending on where you live and how hard they attack your neighborhood.”
In some neighborhoods, the Sanitation Department will fine buildings for not separating the wire from the cardboard tubes in dry cleaning hangers — an actual violation, according to Dawkins. Most buildings rely on tenants to sort their recyclables properly.
“In the past the department would work with you as long you swept twice a day,” Zachary Kerr said. “But now, if there is a gust of wind and a bag of chips that was in the middle of street is on the sidewalk — it’s now my problem.”