Tenants demanding repairs in the city’s most dangerous apartment buildings will be put on a fast track in housing court, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and court officials said Tuesday.
The speedier court process will apply to so-called HP, or “housing part,” cases filed against the owners of buildings with vacate orders, elevator outages or other major problems, like heat and hot water failures. Tenants and the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development file such cases to force landlords to make necessary repairs when other city enforcement or tenant requests fail.
The new directive will compel landlords to answer the complaints in court within five days after many cases are filed. It comes as heating failures and elevator outages continue to rise, and as tenants report a growing number of problems to the city’s housing agency, annual statistics show. Tenant advocates blame the increasing problems on negligent landlords and lengthy delays in enforcement, while owner groups counter that rules capping rent increases in stabilized apartments leave many landlords with little money to address mounting repairs and maintenance…