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.
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.