Bill Text: NY S04503 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Directs the department of financial services to periodically inspect residential real properties for which a lender has a duty to maintain; authorizes the department of financial services or the municipality to impose a $500 a day civil penalty for the failure of a lender to maintain an abandoned property that it has a duty to maintain; requires such lenders to register with the statewide vacant and abandoned property electronic registry.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO HOUSING, CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT [S04503 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S04503-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4503

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 9, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  LIU, MYRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and
          when printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing, Construction
          and Community Development

        AN ACT to amend the  real  property  actions  and  proceedings  law,  in
          relation  to directing the department of financial services to conduct
          periodic inspections of vacant and abandoned residential real property
          required to be maintained by the mortgagee, authorize  the  department
          of  financial  services  and  municipalities  to  impose a daily civil
          penalty upon mortgagees which fail to maintain  abandoned  and  vacant
          residential  real  property,  and  requiring  lenders having a duty to
          maintain residential real property  to  register  with  the  statewide
          vacant and abandoned property registry

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1.  Section 1307 of the real property actions and  proceedings
     2  law is amended by adding a new subdivision 2-a to read as follows:
     3    2-a. The department of financial services shall cause an inspection to
     4  be  conducted,  with  regard  to  compliance with the provisions of this
     5  section, of each residential  real  property  that  is  subject  to  the
     6  provisions  of  this  section within four months of the date the lender,
     7  assignee or mortgage loan servicer registers with the  statewide  vacant
     8  and abandoned property registry pursuant to section thirteen hundred ten
     9  of this article and every six months thereafter until the property is no
    10  longer subject to the provisions of this section.
    11    §  2.  Subdivision  3 of section 1307 of the real property actions and
    12  proceedings law, as added by chapter 507 of the laws of 2009, is amended
    13  to read as follows:
    14    3. The department of financial services,  the  municipality  in  which
    15  such  residential  real  property  is  located,  any  tenant lawfully in
    16  possession, and a board of managers of a condominium in which the  prem-
    17  ises  are  located  or  a  homeowners  association  if said premises are

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07457-01-3
        S. 4503                             2

     1  subject to the rules and regulations of such an association, shall  have
     2  the  right  to  enforce the obligations described in this section in any
     3  court of competent jurisdiction after at least seven days notice to  the
     4  plaintiff  in  the  foreclosure  action  unless  emergency  repairs  are
     5  required. Any entity acting pursuant to this subdivision  shall  have  a
     6  cause  of  action  in  any  court  of competent jurisdiction against the
     7  plaintiff in the foreclosure action  to  recover  costs  incurred  as  a
     8  result  of  maintaining  the  property.   In addition, the department of
     9  financial services or the municipality in which the residential property
    10  is located may impose a civil penalty of five hundred dollars  for  each
    11  day a party required to maintain property pursuant to this section fails
    12  to  do  so  or  fails  to comply with the provisions of section thirteen
    13  hundred ten of this article. The authority provided by this  subdivision
    14  shall  be in addition to, and shall not be deemed to diminish or reduce,
    15  any rights of the parties described in this section under  existing  law
    16  against  the  mortgagor  of  such  property for failure to maintain such
    17  property.
    18    § 3. Section 1308 of the real property actions and proceedings law  is
    19  amended by adding a new subdivision 7-a to read as follows:
    20    7-a. The department of financial services shall cause an inspection of
    21  the subject property to be conducted, with regard to compliance with the
    22  provisions  of  this section within four months of the date the servicer
    23  registers with the statewide vacant and  abandoned  property  electronic
    24  registry  pursuant  to section thirteen hundred ten of this article, and
    25  every six months thereafter until such time as the property is no longer
    26  subject to the provisions of this section.
    27    § 4. Subdivision 2 of section 1310 of the real  property  actions  and
    28  proceedings  law,  as  added by section 4 of part Q of chapter 73 of the
    29  laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
    30    2. A lender, assignee or mortgage loan servicer shall submit or  cause
    31  to  be  submitted  to  the  department of financial services information
    32  required by the superintendent of financial services  about  any  vacant
    33  and  abandoned  residential  real  property,  as that term is defined in
    34  subdivision two of section thirteen hundred nine of this article, or  as
    35  the superintendent of financial services may otherwise define that term,
    36  or about any foreclosed property for which the lender, assignee or mort-
    37  gage  loan  servicer has a duty to maintain pursuant to section thirteen
    38  hundred seven or thirteen hundred eight of this article  within  twenty-
    39  one business days of when the lender, assignee or mortgage loan servicer
    40  learns,  or  should have learned, that such property is vacant and aban-
    41  doned, or that the property is the subject of a judgment of  foreclosure
    42  and  sale  and  remains  vacant and abandoned, as the case may be.  Such
    43  information shall, at a minimum, include: (a) the current name,  address
    44  and contact information for the lender, assignee or mortgage loan servi-
    45  cer responsible for maintaining the vacant property; (b) whether a fore-
    46  closure  action has been filed for the property in question, and, if so,
    47  the date on which the foreclosure action was commenced, or the date  the
    48  judgement of foreclosure and sale was entered, as the case may be; [and]
    49  (c)   the   last   known   address   and  contact  information  for  the
    50  [mortgagor(s)] mortgagor or mortgagors of record; (d) the date the prop-
    51  erty was determined to be vacant or abandoned, or the date the  duty  of
    52  the  lender, assignee or mortgage loan servicer to maintain the property
    53  accrued; and (e) the names of all officers of the  lender,  assignee  or
    54  mortgage loan servicer upon which service of process may be made.
    55    §  5. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
    56  ing the date on which it shall have become a law.