Water Torture Ends, Temporarily, for Co-ops and Condos
June 9, 2016 — A judge rules that city water policies unfairly favor small homeowners.
A Manhattan judge has temporarily blocked the city Water Board from raising rates and giving preferential treatment to owners of one-, two-, and three-family homes, while penalizing co-ops and condominiums, the Daily News reports.
The Rent Stabilization Association (RSA), which represents some 25,000 landlords, sued to block recent actions by the Water Board, which is appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, including a 2.1 percent rate increase and a one-time $183 credit to small homeowners – but not to multi-family residences, including co-ops and condos.
"Owners of apartment buildings, as well as condo and co-op owners, are getting hit twice – footing the bill for an arbitrary rate hike to fund an illegal credit, and then being excluded from the credit," said RSA President Joseph Strasburg in a statement.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead said Tuesday that the board's rate hike, which is supposed to take effect July 1, and the small homeowner credit cannot be implemented until she conducts a hearing on June 20.