Adams violates city rules by again failing to…

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Adams violates city rules by again failing to register his Brooklyn rental
property with NYC housing agency

Then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams invited reporters on June 9, 2021, to tour his ground-floor home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. (Tim Balk /

New York Daily News)

By Chris Sommerfeldt | csommerfeldt@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News

PUBLISHED: January 2, 2024 at 12:17 p.m. | UPDATED: January 2, 2024 at 1:42 p.m.

Mayor Adams faces potential fines for failing to register his Brooklyn rental property with the city’s
housing agency last year — the latest in a string of violations at the building, according to public
records.

Under city law, landlords must file registration statements with the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development once a year spelling out details about properties where they charge
rent from tenants. The requirement is meant to make it easier for the agency, known as HPD, to keep
tabs on rental properties and ensure they’re in good condition and in compliance with all applicable
laws.

Yet, Adams was hit this past Nov. 21 with a violation for failing to submit a registration form for his
rowhouse on Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which contains multiple units he’s renting out
to tenants, HPD records show.

The violation, which remains open, states Adams’ previous registration on the property expired Sept.
1, meaning the building has as of this week sat unregistered for more than four months.

“[Adams] is therefore subject to civil penalties, prohibited from certifying violations, and denied the
right to recover possession of premises for nonpayment of rent until a valid registration statement is
filed,” the violation says.

Mayor Eric Adams’ apartment building on Lafayette Ave. in Brooklyn, New York, is pictured Wednesday, January 4, 2023. (Shawn
Inglima for New York Daily News)

Landlords who fail to register their buildings on time can face fines of between $250-$500 per
violation, per city law.

A City Hall spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News on
Tuesday on whether a fine has been imposed on Adams. HPD, which is charged with maintaining the
city’s affordable housing stock, did not immediately return a request for comment, either.

November’s registration snafu isn’t the first time Adams has faced registration issues at his Bed-Stuy
digs.

As first reported by The News, the Lafayette Avenue building went without Housing Preservation and
Development registration status for 12 years — from 2009 until 2021.

Even though Adams campaign spokesman Evan Thies said in 2021 that he would “update the
registration immediately,” the mayor failed again in 2022 to register the building before its permit
expired, resulting in another violation.

Since becoming mayor, Adams has also been slapped with nearly a half dozen summonses for alleged
rat infestations at the Bed-Stuy building. He has gotten multiple of those summonses dismissed after
appearing before administrative judges to make the case that he’s doing everything he can to
eradicate four-legged pests at his property.

According to his latest tax return , Adams collected $19,850 in rental income from the Bed-Stuy
building in 2022.

That’s markedly less than the $24,600 he raked in 2021, a drop Adams spokesman Charles Lutvak
earlier this year attributed to the fact that one of the mayor’s tenants only payed rent “intermittently”
in 2022. Lutvak would not elaborate on why the tenant isn’t paying rent regularly.

Then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams invited reporters on June 9, 2021, to tour his ground-floor home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant
neighborhood of Brooklyn. (Tim Balk / New York Daily News)

The Lafayette Avenue property first landed in the headlines in 2021 after news reports raised
questions about whether Adams truly lived there during the mayoral race he went on to win.

Beyond the registration issues, records show one of Adams’ tenants on Lafayette Avenue filed a
complaint with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development this past Oct. 9
complaining there was “no heat” in their unit.

The department closed the complaint without issuing any fines, though, because an inspector “was
not able to gain access to your apartment or others in the building to inspect for a lack of heat or hot
water,” an entry in the agency’s database says.

“If the condition still exists, please file a new complaint,” the entry adds.

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