NY State Landlord Survey

02/01/2023

Now more than ever, it is critical for our elected officials to hear from us. We have invited our Westchester NYS Senate and Assembly delegation for an interactive dialogue about the most pressing issues impacting your business and our community. Some of the issues that will be addressed include –...

01/26/2023

One of our landlords sent this to me. Didn’t ANYONE do some math calculations before passing this? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Let’s make sure the voices of the climate-change cultists aren’t the only ones Eric Adams hears. Affordability is the first crisis he must resolve.

01/21/2023

The ERAP PORTAL IS CLOSED!!! We did a kinda spontaneous celebration on Zoom with 6 other NY State Landlord Survey Landlords from around NY State. Washed off our Bugs and Mrs. Bunny champagne flutes from our wedding day (I don’t think we’ve used them since), and at 9PM we popped the cork on the bottle of champagne that our friend (and fellow landlord) Pam Robinson gave us on 9/6 - our family’s INDEPENDENCE DAY when our nightmare tenant was finally evicted (eternally grateful to our LT Lawyer Joe DeJesu, and Karen Klafter Schackner and Legislator Tom Donnelly). We had great fun chatting with the other landlords, catching up and checking in on their current situations. One has 16 non-paying ERAP tenants still squatting - he’s had some success paying tenants to leave 🤢; another celebrated the end of a 30 month nightmare with his malicious & fraudulent section 8 tenant who is a supervisor at the post office. Of course she applied for ERAP to stay her eviction - took over a year to be denied because (get this) it wasn’t her primary residence!!! Come to find out she had multiple apartments under different assumed names - ALL SECTION 8 collecting subsidies! This decades-long Section 8 landlord providing affordable housing will never participate in the program again. Another landlord liberated one of her 2 units hijacked by ERAP tenants and is currently stuck in the “pending yet unfunded” camp. Yet another landlord is HOMELESS for 3 YEARS as his malicious Section 8 tenants used the shelter of the moratorium and now ERAP to stay in his house - that he NEEDS to move into. New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance finally announced that pending Section 8 ERAP applications will never be reviewed or paid - but no promises on WHEN they will be DENIED or the ERAP eviction protections removed so he can move forward in court. His judge refuses to render a decision in his case. His only choice is to spend $$$$$ that he doesn’t have for Supreme Court. The last landlord shared how his malicious non-paying ERAP tenants ran the water to intentionally drive up his bills. We are all in a terrified state of limbo of what is next for our properties and vacant units. When I asked if they saw any opportunity for themselves in the Governor Kathy Hochul’s new housing plan, everyone laughed. “How can we trust them after what they’ve done to us?” was the consensus.

One of the landlords asked if all our work and time and money have CHANGED ANYTHING. I’m so thankful that Ann Korchak from Small Property Owners of New York (SPONY) joined us so I could talk about their advocacy help, the progress, the legal research, and their meetings all over the state. Our help from Assemblyman Steve Stern has paved the way for our seen and unseen successes that are continuing - new legislation is coming!! We also talked about the DIAMOND that we stumbled upon - gathering the small landlords from all over the state TOGETHER to share and discuss our common challenges through the survey. This has never been done before - and we are the poppy seeds on the bagel numbering 78% of all NY Landlords! Our feedback is VITAL to ANY affordable housing and supply success in NY State!

While ERAP landlords are still technically STUCK IN LIMBO as the pending ERAP applications will still languish for (my estimation) up to 2 more years as they sloowwwwlyyy re-allocate funds from previously approved applications where landlords didn’t take the money… which is a purgatory all it’s own… THE ERAP PORTAL CLOSING is still worthy of CELEBRATION for Landlords! Malicious tenants can’t keep re-applying anymore - starting their eviction protections over and over and over again, “gaming” the flaws in OTDA’s program ex*****on. Unsubmitted applications ARE NOT VALID now!! All along these application numbers have been used to stay evictions and they haven’t even been REAL applications (44% of ERAP numbers weren’t valid). We now KNOW that - for every one of the landlords - there will be an END to their torture at SOME POINT now. And POSSIBLY some compensation - which has to date been the smallest fraction of actual losses for most landlords dealing with ERAP.

While last night at 9:00pm up to 10:30pm the portal was STILL OPEN 🤦🏻‍♀️ (we expected nothing less from OTDA’s nauseating ineptitude)… THIS MORNING IT’S CLOSED! 🎉

With Intro 632 (banning criminal background checks) and Good Cause Eviction legislation (instituting mandatory rent control across the entire state) actively being considered as I type this, our work holding onto any property rights is FAR from over. If you’re a small landlord and you want to stand together with us when we raise the battle cry again, please join SPONY at SPONY.org. They are established, organized and sharpening their tools to proudly stand up for ALL of us. (Lance and I will be right there with them).

01/21/2023

LET'S CELEBRATE the ERAP PORTAL CLOSING on ZOOM! Here's the invite!!
June Margolin is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: NY State Landlord Survey's Zoom Meeting
Time: Jan 20, 2023 08:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9010808155
Meeting ID: 901 080 8155
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01/20/2023

STAY TUNED for more details! Landlords, we have to celebrate this moment together!

01/13/2023

The ERAP portal is OFFICIALLY CLOSING January 20th at 9pm. 🍾 (Funny that OTDA finally specified “submitted” applications for the first time EVER.) OFFICIAL STATEMENT THAT RENT SUBSIDIZED TENANT APPLICATIONS WILL NEVER BE REVIEWED! As I suspected, all pending applications will REMAIN PENDING (funds will be released monthly from provisionally approved applications that were unclaimed, plus the state may throw more money at the program too.) It’s up to the legislature to REMOVE the eviction protections…or up to the Judges to proceed with evictions when arrears are over 15 months. Share your thoughts…

The New York State Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) will provide significant economic relief to help low and moderate-income households at risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability by providing rental arrears, temporary rental assistance and utility arrears assistance.

01/13/2023

Video interview with the new Assembly Housing Chair and the existing Senate Housing Chair…who committed to Good Cause Eviction in this interview! Guys, we’ve got A LOT of work to do in the next 6 months!

Legislators responded to the plan.

12/30/2022

SENIORS, VETERANS, DISABLED and Low to Moderate income homeowners assistance.

Governor Hochul announced $20.7 million in grants that are expected to support critical repairs and modifications for more than 800 homes across the state.

12/24/2022

Great job on this article Cavanaugh!! Thank you to Small Property Owners of New York (SPONY) President Ann Heaney Korchak for bringing the “Phantom Applications” issue to light!!

The decision to close ERAP leaves questions for tens of thousands who applied for aid but have yet to hear if they qualify.

12/14/2022

THANK YOU The Real Deal for reaching out to us for a comment on this incredible news!

New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or ERAP, will shutter under a settlement between tenants and the state.

12/14/2022

Here is the link to the actual agreement that closes the ERAP portal on 1/15/23 for you to use in court in your upcoming eviction hearings:

12/14/2022

BREAKING NEWS!! The Real Deal reporter Suzannah Cavanaugh has requested a quote from me. I hope I captured all of your sentiments:
“Finally! Landlords will be one giant leap closer to getting their homes back after January 15th!I’m absolutely elated by the news as this victory has taken so much advocacy work from so many of us property owners across the state working together with our officials. Our NY State Assemblyman Steve Stern has been a warrior for us, bringing the devastating consequences impacting landlords along with solutions to fix NY’s broken ERAP to the highest levels of state Government.

The reality is that NY’s ERAP nightmare won’t be over for most small property owners until spring 2023 at least as we have to navigate through the court systems and Sheriff warrant ex*****ons - both of which are plagued with unreasonable delays. And then there’s rebuilding…

My husband and I are struggling with $60,000 in debt from lost rent, legal fees, and damage that has completely gutted our apartment. Despite near perfect credit and tons of equity in our home, we can’t get a HELOC loan to rebuild because we haven’t had enough income for the last 2 years thanks to New York State sheltering our non-paying tenant. The impact of New York’s “relief” program will take us 10 years or more to repay…that is, if we can figure out how to keep our house until it’s fixed.

As per our NY State Landlord and ERAP Survey, 47% of ERAP landlords will not rent again. I can’t even count how many landlords have sold the moment they could and left New York State completely. We don’t blame them and have a wandering eye ourselves. Nobody wants to live in a state whose policies actively work to destroy you and your family.
- June Margolin, creator of “New York State Landlord and ERAP Survey” StopERAP.com”