Daily Freeman
People who control limited liability corporations (LLCs) that own residential rental properties in New York state can no longer hide their identities.
Sen. James Skoufis, D-Woodbury, and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, D-New City, announced this week that their legislation requiring the disclosure of such LLC operators' names has been signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Under the new law, which takes effect immediately, LLCs that own residential properties containing one to four units "will now be required to share the names and contact information for all owners, managers and agents associated with the company at the time of a real estate transaction,” the legislators said in a prepared statement.
“Currently, it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the true ownership of anonymous LLCs, leaving municipalities with no person to hold responsible for code violations, illegal building or fines,” the statement continued.
Until now, a limited liability corporation buying, say, a residential property at 1234 Main St., had been allowed to identify itself only vaguely, such as 1234 Main Street LLC.
Skoufis, whose Senate district includes parts of Ulster, Orange and Rockland counties, said the new law “will rip the mask off of these anonymous LLCs that continue to purchase massive amounts of real estate in the Hudson Valley."
“Neighbors have a fundamental right to know who owns the home next door to them,” Skoufis said.
“Likewise, municipalities are desperate for this disclosure when they seek to hold property owners accountable for ... violations."
17 comments:
I've always wondered how you can sue a corporation or a person who owns property here in America but they, themselves, don't live in America even?
This is all very nice, but why did this reporter not include the state code number by which citizens can actually look up the wording of this law and see for themselves how good it really is? The devil's always in the details. Crappy reporting.
It used to be possible to go to Albany and get the names
of all limited partners investing in any fund.
These should now be online.
Heck, I'm not muck raking,
I want them to invest in my stuff, too.
Common sense law that should have enacted decades ago. As usual, wait till the issue is out of control.
Wow, useful legislation coming out of Albany? That doesn't happen every week.
We need to put cameras in all the stairwells and lunchrooms to blacklist anyone who doesn't take their diversity and ethics training seriously.
Hear hear, long overdue. Find out the identities of people hiding behind LLCs and hold them accountable to the communities they're leeching off of.
"I've always wondered how you can sue a corporation or a person who owns property here in America but they, themselves, don't live in America even?"
Uh, it's very elementary actually. The "property" that is owned is situated on American territory and therefore can be attached.
Just sayin' bro.
Property is subject to the laws where it's situated.
Law 101 to start next week.
Hey, great. Let's just continue to chase capital out of New York. Surely, capital doesn't have options...(sarcasm just in case idiots aren't getting it)
Hey,Tommy R: The people that are "hiding behind LLC's" have invested REAL capital into NYC. What have you done? By the way, they can invest their capital wherever they want. If the commies in NYC think they are going to win this, they are out of their minds. Carl Icahn left last week, Michael Stern has already left to Florida, Gary Barnett is thinking about it and hordes more will join them. Chase capital away at your own peril, Bubba. They are being welcomed with open arms elsewhere.
TommyR: So "leeches' are people that invest their money into NYC real estate. By your reasoning, apparently, the "leeches" aren't the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who
live in the city without paying any taxes while siphoning public services. Or, the hordes of tenants that are paying way below market rents while spending half the year in Florida. I have a neighbor that pays $679 a month for a one bedroom in Astoria and spends nine months a year in Tampa. It is literally cheaper for her to pay the yearly rent than it would be if she spent a few weeks a year in a Manhattan hotel. And it doesn't stop there. I once actually got reached on the waiting list (after 10 years) for a Mitchell-Lama coop in Manhattan. When I was being shown the unit, in mid-February, the management company rep actually told me directly that 75% of the building was empty because "everybody goes down south for the winter." I understand that landlords can be jerks but it's a two-way street.
Lucky enough to have some property owned and rented out in B/Q. No corporate subsidies, 421-a bullshit, no tax breaks, or anything like that. Just a small landlord, who can be looked up by name through ACRIS. Why would this scare anyone who does things on the up and up?
The leeches are luxury glass box developers that destroy neighborhood character and rent out to rich foreigners and trust fund kiddies, and make sure the right hands are greased to get away with building soaring monstrosities that don't belong in low rise working class Queens nabes. Are you a shill for the Real Estate interests? Cuz they'll make money no matter what - if they need government handouts to "make it", clearly they don't know how to run a business. AFA "hoardes" of tenants paying below market rates, LOL...okay buddy, maybe in whatever universe your reality is.
Feel free to take your capital and flee to Florida with your buddies, you won't be missed. The fewer people rushing to overbuild up the outer boroughs, the better.
Wow, this should hit the movers and shakers of your community hard.
You see, they get a front man who takes out an LLC name. Now the ownership and its location is spelled out by law in case they need to serve papers in court.
But then the fun stuff happens. The front men amend the partnership drawn from a pool of your local leaders - could be civics, donors to good causes, elected officials, in short, all 'tha boys.' No amendments (or partners) need made public by law.
Then they buy something - evict the tenants, get a variance, do anything they want. Then can turn a landmark into a clubhouse, an old building into a zone busting monster. And they smile, the papers do nice stories, and these local 'legends and heroes' basically exploit their leadership positions to mine the community for money - which is the only reason they are involved with the community. The other stuff you read in the papers about them is a front.
Yup, should be pretty interesting to see how they get by this.
Unless something really serious happens around here...I don't see a lack of people wanting to invest. I'd rather know who the mf's are that don't live here, don't give a crap about their tenets or neighbors. It's hardly a left wing plot. It's transparency. In this case I value transparency over privacy to keep owners in check.
Everyday there is more laws in the Nyc system. I read a report that atleast 18 new regulations are passed everyday in Nyc.
"Unless something really serious happens around here...I don't see a lack of people wanting to invest..."
Not sure how old you are or how long you have been living in NYC but clearly you weren't here in the 70's when the "Bronx was burning..." was announced during a baseball game. I agree that the prices and rental rates of real estate are beyond all reason but that is more a function of artificially low interest rates than anything else. Both your statement and the views of TommyR above, contain a large level of naivete. Something "serious" is happening right now in real time. Major investors are reconsidering their options as "anonymous" above alluded to. It has been a generation since Giuliani and Bratton cleaned this town up and many here seem to not realize how bad it was or how bad it could get. Again, the pendulum has swung too much toward the wealthy, but the alternative wasn't exactly a walk in the park either. Most people from decades past moved east as soon as they could. One day in the near or distance future, interest rates must normalize and the music will stop. That's when the carnage will begin.
Harry Bingham IV
I'm normally very much in favor of anonymity, especially on the internet, but this seems like a very self-evident example of where it shouldn't be allowed.
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