Council bill would take money from crooked landlords
Illegal homeowners could face property liens
Charging that unscrupulous landlords are bypassing the city’s zoning laws by gutting one- and two-family homes and turning the dwellings into multiple-unit apartment houses, a trio of Brooklyn elected officials came to Dyker Heights on Monday to announce proposed legislation aimed at stopping the practice of illegal home conversions.
“Substandard housing is not affordable housing,” Councilmember Vincent Gentile said as he stood in front of a two-story brick house at 928 Bay Ridge Parkway, which he said is suspected of having been illegally converted into multiple units. Thirty complaints about the house have been filed with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), according to the agency’s website.