November 18, 2016
Over 97 percent of fines issued to deadbeat landlords never collected, audit shows
A recent audit by Comptroller Scott Stringer found that the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) only collected 2.46 percent of the $35.1 million in overdue fines sent to its enforcement unit in the past two years, meaning that tens of millions of dollars owed by bad landlords remained unpaid by October of 2015. Landlords get hit with fines of up to $1,000 a day for failing to fix items like a lack of heat or lead paint, but the audit charged that building owners are getting away with dodging the fines, the New York Daily News reports.
'A free pass to break the law'
'A free pass to break the law'
