New York City may soon offer a temporary amnesty program for certain outstanding OATH/ECB judgments, potentially allowing property owners to resolve eligible penalties at significantly reduced amounts.

The legislation, which was introduced at the request of the Mayor, has been approved by the City Council. However, the program is not final and is not currently in effect. We are sharing this information now because, if the program moves forward as expected, there are steps property owners should begin taking before the amnesty period opens.

Under the proposed program:

• Default penalties would potentially be resolved by paying only the original base penalty, with the default penalty and accrued interest waived.

• Penalties determined at a hearing would be resolved by paying 75% of the imposed penalty, with accrued interest waived.

   

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Not every outstanding violation would qualify. Certain violations, like idling violations, and those already subject to collection or enforcement actions, along with other exclusions, would not be eligible.

There is one important requirement owners should be aware of now: DOB and FDNY violations that require correction will need to be certified as corrected in order to qualify for a reduction under the proposed amnesty program. Without an approved Certificate of Correction, the violation penalty would not be eligible for the amnesty reduction.

DOB and FDNY Certificates of Correction currently take approximately 3–4 weeks to be processed, and based on experience during the prior amnesty programs, we anticipate processing times could become significantly longer once an amnesty program is announced and property owners across the City begin filing corrections. Therefore, it is important to start certifying correction is now, not after the amnesty program begins.

Waiting until the program opens could mean losing valuable time during what is expected to be a limited amnesty period. Under the legislation as currently written, the program would run for just 90 days, with the possibility of one additional 90-day extension.

Again, the amnesty program has not yet been finalized or opened, and details could still change. We will continue monitoring the legislation and will notify you as additional information becomes available.

In the meantime, owners with outstanding DOB or FDNY violations should review them now and determine which conditions have been corrected but still require a Certificate of Correction.

Getting those violations certified now will put you in a much better position to take advantage of the potential penalty reductions if and when the amnesty program begins.