Sale of tax liens and notice to property owners when property tax bills are available online.

A Local Law to amend the New York city charter and the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the sale of tax liens and notice to property owners when property tax bills are available online

This bill would reauthorize the City’s tax lien sale program for another four years. It would also do the following: 1) Allow for greater flexibility with payment plans, including the option of monthly payments and a one-time opportunity to enter into a second payment plan if the property owner has defaulted on a previous plan; 2) Change notification and communication requirements, including the provision of written notification to the owner when a property is removed from the lien sale due to payment or any other reason, expansion of the use of telephone and email as outreach methods, and connecting property owners to financial counseling resources; 3) Mandate greater data collection and reporting on the impact of the lien sale, including the reporting of currently available data on the charges accrued to properties after the lien sale, mortgage and title transfers of properties included in the lien sale, and surveys to determine the circumstances that lead property owners to fall behind on municipal charges; and 4) Allow emergency repair charges of at least $1,000, that had remained unpaid for at least one year, to trigger lien sale eligibility for non-owner occupied one-, two-, and three-family homes. It would also renumber one of the two sections 11-245.8 of the Administrative Code to become 11-245.10 to resolve the conflict between the two identically numbered sections.