In an effort to crack down on illegal housing, the Town of Brookhaven is proposing a law to significantly increase fines for landlords who perpetuate units that violate Town Code.
Supervisor Dan Panico (R-Center Moriches) (pictured below) says the strategy is to discourage would-be offenders by “hitting them where it hurts:” their wallets.
“When you’re getting $3000 or more a month in house rentals, a $500 first-time fine is too low,” said Panico, discussing the “genesis” of the legislation. He was joined at Town Hall on Monday morning by Councilmembers Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point), Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), Neil Manzella (R-Selden), Michael Loguercio (R-Ridge), Neil Foley (R-Blue Point), and Karen Dunne Kesnig (R-Manorville), as well as civic leaders in Kareem Nugdalla of Coram and Linda Miller of Selden.
Suffolk County Legislators Nick Caracappa (C-Selden) (pictured below), Jim Mazzarella (R-Moriches), and Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue) also joined to show solidarity with the Town in combating this problem that creates safety concerns for their constituents.
Currently, the minimum fine for a first-time offense is $500 with a maximum fine of $5000 under Section 82-14 of the Neighborhood Preservation Act, which was passed in 1999 to “preserve the aesthetic integrity” of neighborhoods, as well as to “prevent neighborhood blight, protect residential property values, encourage residential property maintenance, and enhance the quality of life.”
The new law would raise the first-time fine from $500 to a new minimum of $2500 and a new maximum of $6000. Second-time offenses currently sit at $1000 minimum and $10,000 maximum. The new minimum would be $5000; the maximum would stay the same.
The legislation would also affect language in Sections 85-158(A) and 85-158(E) of the Town Code, which currently dictates penalization and remedies for offenses. Section 85-158(A) specifically mentions violations of statutes set not only by the Town Board, but by the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Planning Board as well.
“The people we represent in Brookhaven Town, who pay a great deal of taxes, expect to live in clean, safe communities. That is what we expect in Brookhaven Town,” said Panico.
Councilman Loguercio spoke of his personal experience with the issue as a long-time member of the Ridge Fire Department.
“Something that is extremely concerning is the illegal subdivisions of residential structures. They don’t adhere to the electrical codes and building codes. Now, you have a situation where technical and electrical work cause fires, but when firefighters are entering a building, they’re on their hands and knees in complete darkness crawling into walls that shouldn’t be there,” said Loguercio (pictured below). “This is where people can die.”
Panico added that criminal charges for potential deaths due to the illegal living situations could be considered based on the case.
“We’ve gotten rid of the Accessory Apartment Review Board. You can simply come in and get that done expeditiously in the Building Department,” Panico offered to prospective renters.
Panico also informed the public of a tell-tale sign of illegal rental units: excessive amounts of cars parked at or near one residence, notably during night hours, especially vehicles parked on lawns or sides of the house. Residents can report possible violations by calling the Councilmembers directly at their offices, or by contacting the Town at 631-451-TOWN (8696).
Residents can also go online to brookhavenny.gov to use the Lookup Rental License tool by searching using a street name and city or Suffolk County Tax Map Number (SCTM) to determine if a suspicious unit is permitted by the Town to be rented. Panico cautioned residents against approaching neighbors and conducting their own investigations. He recommends reporting the information to the Town for the various boards to investigate themselves. He stressed after-hours and weekend hours, as well as overtime hours that he approved, for employees to crack down on this specific issue.
“We want to hear from you, we want to bring this town into compliance and we want you to know that we care about your quality of life, all of us collectively, and we encourage you to contact us directly,” said Panico. “We’re hiking the fines, we’re hiking enforcement, and we encourage the residents to care about their neighborhood.”
Meanwhile, Suffolk County Legislators are vowing cooperation on their end, hoping to pass similar legislation to gut County subsidies to code-violating homeowners.
“I’m going to craft legislation to make sure that any housing that is funded by Suffolk County is funded into a proper and code-enforced home, that we are not putting people who are unrelated to each other in these houses,” said Legislator Mazzarella (pictured below). “What we see over and over again is that people who are living in these houses are not related to each other.”
Mazzarella says that while quality of life is “very concerning,” safety is also a top priority of the change, referencing the wide variety of calls EMS and/or police might encounter at any routine house call: drugs, alcohol, domestic disputes, or physical altercations.
“This is a business model that is out of control,” Legislator Caracappa said of the housing violations, adding that sanitary violations are also prevalent. Caracappa said that constituents of his in Coram tell their children to “look away” from certain homes when driving down their streets because of the different illegal setups.
“That is not the quality of life we’re looking for here in Brookhaven,” said Caracappa. “We’re better than that, and we can no longer enable those who take advantage of the system, both on the owner’s side and the recipient’s side.”
Panico added that if residents maintain their homes and rent within the confines of the Code are not the problem, rather those who “bring down a neighborhood for their own pecuniary gain.”
“Don’t mess around in the Town of Brookhaven,” said Panico to potential offenders. “We’ve made it easier for you to do things the right way. We stand ready to help people who want to do it the right way, but if you want to thumb your nose at the people who live in our communities, we are going to prosecute you to the maximum extent possible.”
Panico also says that the legislation is expected to pass unanimously.
The bill now enters a period of public comment to be discussed at the next board meeting on Tuesday, November 19, at 3:00p.m. at Town Hall, 1 Independence Hill in Farmingville.
