News Release - Mayor Warren Introduces Legislation to Hold Absentee Landlords Accountable

(Wed., August 9, 2017) — Mayor Lovely A. Warren announced today that she has submitted legislation to reduce the negative impact of absentee landlords on city property values. The legislation is part of a multi-pronged strategy to strengthen the City’s Nuisance Abatement Point System to create safer, more vibrant neighborhoods, increase government transparency and improve landlord accountability.

“We have to give city residents and business owners confidence that the investments they make in this city will be sound,” said Mayor Warren. “A stronger and more effective nuisance abatement point system gives us a powerful tool to protect those investments, while also being fair to business owners and landlords.”

The Mayor’s legislation would amend the City’s Building Owner Registry to require City property owners to identify a point of contact for issues that arise at their property. If an owner resides outside the 13- or 14- zip code areas they will have to designate someone who resides within Monroe County as their point of contact. The new legislation also requires owners to provide a business phone number that can be released to the public. Council will vote on the amendment at its Aug. 15 meeting.

The legislation is among a number of recommendations outlined in a report by Strategic Communities Intervention LLC (SCI), who the Mayor contracted with in October 2016 to study and recommend changes to the City’s nuisance abatement programs.

The Mayor also announced that nuisance point information is now available online so that anyone can check to see if a property located within city limits has been assessed nuisance points or nuisance activity. Nuisance points and activity information has been added to the City’s Property Information System (www.cityofrochester.gov/propinfo), a geographic information system (GIS) map of the city that provides various property data such as ownership, assessment, property tax, water bill information and more.

The new data presented indicates whether a property has had nuisance points issued within the past year; what nuisance offense occurred and when; the number of points the property has accumulated in the last 6 and 12 months; and whether any of the following actions have occurred: a nuisance warning meeting; an acceptable resolution plan has been submitted; whether the City has initiated a legal action against a property; or whether the property was closed down.

In addition, the City has launched a nuisance activity map on the City’s website (www.cityofrochester.gov/nuisancepointsmap) that provides access to all nuisance cases on a citywide basis. This information will help the public and City employees assess nuisance property data for any geographic area and extract the data into a spreadsheet for analysis and reporting.

In September, the City will add software to its GIS interface that will provide additional analytical tools for vacant and abandoned property management.

The redesigned Nuisance Points Abatement System will be overseen by the Director of the Neighborhood Service Centers, a position Mayor Warren created in March to improve customer service in the NSCs and more effectively address quality-of-life issues in Rochester’s neighborhoods.

For more information on the City’s Nuisance Point System and to view the Strategic Communities Intervention LLC report, visit www.cityofrochester.gov/nusiancepointsystem.

To view the City’s GIS maps, visit www.cityofrochester.gov/maps.

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News Media: For more information, contact City Press Officer Jessica Alaimo at 428-7135.