Monday, September 26, 2011

We've heard this before


From CBS:

The influx of illegal apartments has become such a problem that the DOB has gone undercover, looking for and busting illegal apartments. The city agency has agents who set up sting operations—part of an ongoing enforcement action.

It’s start with a DOB agent reading between the lines, trying to find illegal apartments among online advertisements. She says they’re easy to spot.

“If it’s a really, really cheap apartment, they’re telling you it’s in a basement or an attic, anything like that,” the undercover agent says. “All utilities included—we really look for that. That’s a red flag for us.”

Once they find the target, they pose as renters and go out to confirm.

...since the program began investigators have issued violations in 86 percent of the apartments visited. With the number of violations, Limandri says they’re not stopping anytime soon.


But you can have those violations on file for years without paying and DOB won't follow up to make sure you corrected them.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

"But you can have those violations on file for years without paying and DOB won't follow up to make sure you corrected them,"
- - - --
So why waste the taxpayers money with sting operations if DOB won't follow up?
How much $$ would the violations cost in fines? and if "undocumented aliens" are found living there, will they be reported to Immigration?

Anonymous said...

Super Halal Meat in Bellerose is a good example of this ridiculous system . The Buildings department has issued this store a lot of violations. All the violations are outstanding, overdue and not corrected. If the city can’t enforce or collect on these violations, why are we wasting our time? This is a very big problem that needs to be corrected immediately.
Why isn’t the Mayor and City Council changing the laws?

superhalalmeat.com

Anonymous said...

...since the program began investigators have issued violations in 86 percent of the apartments visited. With the number of violations, Limandri says they’re not stopping anytime soon.

HAHA,who are you guys trying to kid.You can't collect or enforce these violations.So why are we playing this game.

Anonymous said...

No followup, and the DOB will continue doing business as usual. Once the violation is issued and substantiated there needs to be immediate action by the city to insure removal of the illegal use and continued verification that is does not reappear. I will not hold my brath aiting, cuz the city will never do it.

FlushingRepresenter said...

It's funny that if you miss a court date for a 25$ tick for an open container you will have a warrant for your ARREST.

Yet these people who owe hundreds of thousands of dollars because of potentially life threatening (unsanitary food, unsafe working conditions etc..) violations never do a day in jail and sometimes never even pay the fines that were issued.

Anonymous said...

Why won't the city do what needs to be done? And who should I be blaming for this problem. Everyone is blaming someone else.

Anonymous said...

compare the worst default fine violaters with which nyc politician they donated campaign money to, and one will get the answer . CORRUPTION.

from Comptroller to CM.

Auntie Invasion said...

as if the Republican machinery will let their big campaign contributors down?

where will all the illegal immigrants and their jack pot babies live if they get rid of all the illegal dwellings?

the DOB should do a database on who owns these buildings and they will find out it's all illegals from third world countries.

mere window dressing building up to next years mayoral campaign.

Anonymous said...

lemmee see, they are going to pose as renters?

why not pose as civil servants and shut down the building?

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg's company is quite proficient at dat amining, which they can do by comparing phone, cable, voting, electric and many other bills as well as voter and income tax records. Most of the evidence is as plain as daya nd they can do it without leaving their desks. And there are guys like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Asher who can do it very cheaply.

Anonymous said...

Making an educated guess from observations I have made over the years, a lot of home-owners/landlords post advertisements overseas or out of state for illegal short-term rentals. They seem to want people in and out of their spaces fast (but not too fast).

There are a lot of landlords in part of Queens who are foreign-born (Greek, Irish, whatever) and probably post ads for short-term rentals with people they know personally in those countries.

My point being, I'd guess most illegally rented spaces are not being advertised in the NYC area - so not sure how effective this particular sting action would be.

Anonymous said...

Go get them Limandri, your a tuff guy. I bet there real scared.
If they never sell their building they will never have to pay the fines.Yea their worried.

Anonymous said...

if the nyc democrat/rino majority gov. wants the violation fines paid,read the d.o.b.website. too damn simple ??????