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Bloomberg Threatens To Foreclose on Properties

February 20, 2008

Mayor Bloomberg is threatening to force foreclosure sales of more than 24,000 city properties to collect nearly $470 million the city is owed in unpaid property taxes and water bills.

The owners of 24,593 properties will receive warning letters from the city notifying them that a lien will be sold on their property if they do not pay off their debts, which range from $1,000 to millions of dollars, within 90 days. If the debts are not paid, a private collector hired by the city can begin foreclosure proceedings.

Mr. Bloomberg defended the city’s move yesterday and said his administration would take all appropriate steps to collect the money it is owed. He said everyone has an interest in the city enforcing laws.

“Everybody should pay. You pay, I pay, they should pay,” he said. “There’s no reason why you and I should subsidize somebody else.”
In 2006, the last time the city sent out similar warning letters, they went to 6,640 property owners. This year there are more than three times as many notices because, for the first time, the city is preparing to sell liens on residential properties where the owners have not paid their water bills.

The list of properties that owe the city money are in all five boroughs. They include a historic restaurant on Barrow Street in Manhattan’s West Village, One if by Land, Two if by Sea, and an Upper East Side property worth more than $10 million that is owned by Michael Melnitzky, a pro se litigator who was profiled in yesterday’s New York Times. All properties on the city’s list to receive a warning letter were published in a 92-page advertisement placed by the city in yesterday’s Daily News.

Source: NY Sun

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Written by NY Politics · Filed Under Real-estate 

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