In New York City, property owners are legally required to register all details of their residential buildings each year with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
The goal is to ensure transparency and accountability among building owners, city agencies, and tenants.
Property registration includes providing accurate information about the building’s ownership and its physical characteristics.
Two conspicuous characteristics of any residential building are the number of stories and the number of units. New York State Attorney General Letitia James has lied about them both.
Registration ensures that HPD and other city agencies can quickly contact responsible parties in the event of emergencies, housing code violations, or tenant complaints. Failing to register – or submitting false information – is illegal. False information can invalidate the registration and result in civil penalties.
On Letitia James’s registration page of her apartment building on HPD, she listed the property at 296 Lafayette Blvd in Brooklyn as having only three stories. In fact, it has four.
In New York City, a building with a basement apartment and three additional floors above it is considered a four-story building for the purposes of HPD registration.
Hellbound and Down 