Edited by: TJVNews.com

Officials announced Saturday that New York state’s Coronavirus caseload is on a steady rise, now up to 76 from the last count of 44. The new number prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency to bolster the medical response to the outbreak. No one has died from the new virus in the state.

“I’m not urging calm,” Cuomo added. “I’m urging reality. I’m urging a factual response as opposed to an emotional response…that people understand the information and not the hype.”

Fox News reported that George Latimer, Westchester County executive, told “America’s News Headquarters” shortly after the Cuomo’s press conference, “What spreads faster than the disease is the fear of the disease.”

As more than 4,000 people in the state have been encouraged to self-quarantine, a Queens man who drives for taxi or ride-hailing services tested positive after showing up to a St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, which prompted 40 doctors and nurses to self-quarantine, meaning the staff will have to be replaced in the meantime, ABC 14 reports.

Cuomo complained, however, that many New Yorkers are not following the self-quarantine requirements, but he says the state of emergency declaration will free up $30 million used for testing and the purchase of protective gear for healthcare workers, as was reported by Fox News.

Fox News reported that the governor warned stores could lose their licenses for price gouging items like hand sanitizer, one he said was selling it for $80 per bottle.

Cuomo, who earlier described the virus as “like a flu on steroids,” also emphasized that “more people are dying from the flu than dying from coronavirus,” as was reported by Fox News.

Cuomo said the state is reconsidering how to address the quarantine period for people in Westchester who are quarantined after coming in contact with people who have tested positive, to apply to their last contact with other people. The quarantine period is typically 14 days after last contact.

Fox News also reported that Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced a second New York state resident who works in the state testing positive for the virus.

“This most recent case of another New York resident who works in Connecticut testing positive for COVID-19 shows us what we already know – Coronavirus is here and viruses don’t stop at state borders,” Lamont said Saturday.

Here’s a look at the latest developments:

THE NUMBERS

Of the new cases, seven are in New York City, bringing the caseload there to 11. The new cases in the city include two people who got off a cruise ship and a driver for taxi or ride-sharing services in Queens, officials said.

Two residents of Saratoga County — a pharmacist and a woman who came in contact with an infected person at a conference in Florida — are also counted in the new total. Their cases are the first ones outside of the New York City region.

Statewide, 10 people have been hospitalized.

CONTINUED WORRIES OVER CLUSTER

Of those cases, by far the largest concentration — 57 — is in Westchester County, north of New York City. That includes 23 new cases there since the last count on Friday.

The Westchester outbreak has been traced to a synagogue in New Rochelle where the congregation was asked to self-quarantine earlier in the week after a person in the community was hospitalized with the illness. Since then, a growing number of friends and relatives of the patient, a 50-year-old lawyer who works in Manhattan, have tested positive.

“Westchester is obviously a problem for us,” Cuomo said. “They talk about contagion in clusters, and then the clusters tend to infect more and more people.”

As a precaution, nursing homes in that immediate area of the Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue will suspend outside visitors, the governor said.

The risk that the virus could quickly spread and cause fatalities among nursing home residents “is what I worry about,” the Democrat said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”

            (AP & Fox News)

By Pat Savage

The recently hired director of technology for New York City isn’t happy, and is threatening lawsuits for companies she feels have let the city down.

So-called “tech czar” Jessica Tisch insisted last week that delays in installation and missing payments of approximately $30 million might mean hot water for several firms that are involved in creating no-cost WiFi kiosks.

In a conversation with the New York City Council, Tisch alleged that a firm – CityBridge — part-owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is taking longer than promised in developing LinkNYC stations.

“My patience is up,” whined Tisch, who took over the City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications in December. “I am poised to take any and all necessary action against these multiple breaches of contract to collect the money the city is owed.”

Councilmembers heard that most of the allegedly missing stations are slated for neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. Said Tisch, “New Yorkers who would benefit most from this service are not getting it.”

But the hi-tech czar wasn’t finished. She also hurled the accusation that CityBridge is late on payments to the tune of more than $30 million for 2019. Nor has the company begun to pay down the $43 million debt it will have accrued by this coming June 30, when the fiscal year draws to a close.

Still not done, Tisch complained that the company has been dragging its feet when it comes to yanking out the last of New York City’s payphones.

“All of this is against the backdrop of millions of dollars in advertising revenue that CityBridge has reported it received over the same period,” Tisch told the City Council.

Under the agreement, the company was responsible for putting in as many as 10,000 of the WiFi stations in all of the city’s boroughs. According to de Blasio administration’s DoITT bean counters, it should bring something on the order of $500 million into the city’s coffers over the first dozen years. But the money has been slow in coming in, said Tisch.

A spokesperson for CityBridge told the New York Post that the tech czar’s claims were little more than “a fictional narrative that ignores the city’s responsibility for the current state of affairs. While the public’s use of LinkNYC’s free services has far exceeded expectations, installing Links has proven more difficult and costly than expected — largely due to the city’s own rules and bureaucracy. For nearly two years, CityBridge has tried to work with the city to solve these problems, but we have been consistently met with silence and delay. CityBridge has maintained LinkNYC’s free services for the public — across all five boroughs — at no cost to users or taxpayers and is committed to the continued success and expansion of the program.”

By: Ross Mackenzie

Don’t go to Broadway shows – at least not if you’re sick.

That was the message from producers who are putting theater-goers’ health ahead of ticket sales.

Show-goers exhibiting flu or cold symptoms and feeling under the weather should exchange their tickets for later dates, according to the producers.

To this point, scheduled performances have not had to be rescheduled. But of course, that could change at any time.

The Broadway League, the trade group representing theater owners and producers, issued this statement last week:

“The Broadway League is closely monitoring the evolving coronavirus situation on behalf of the Broadway community. The safety and security of our theatregoers and employees is our highest priority. We are following the lead of our city, state and federal elected officials as we implement strategies recommended by public health authorities and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in all of our theatres and offices as all productions continue to play as scheduled. We have significantly increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting in all public and backstage areas beyond the standard daily schedule, and we have added alcohol-based sanitizer dispensers for public use in the lobby of every theatre. We invite patrons to make use of soap, paper towels, and tissues available in all restrooms. We remain vigilant, and we are prepared to make decisions based on current recommendations, as well as in response to changing conditions. Anyone who is experiencing cold or flu symptoms, or who is not feeling well, is encouraged to stay home and contact the point of purchase for more information about ticket exchanges and policies.”

The latest (the week ending March 1st) sales figures generated by Broadway box officers, according to the League, show ticket sales down just a bit. Yet worries continue.

“The illness couldn’t have arrived at a worse time of the year for Broadway, with awards season in sight and the spring openings of major productions already underway. (“Girl From The North Country” opened last night, and much-anticipated shows including “Six,” “Company,” “Hangmen,” “Diana” and “The Lehman Trilogy,” to name just a sampling, are either in previews or about to be.),” reported the New York Post.

To date, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, here is what the city is dealing with:

New Confirmed Cases in New York City

– Two additional family members of an Upper West Side man in his 50s tested positive –wife and 11 year old daughter. They are currently in mandatory quarantine and are mildly symptomatic.

– A male Uber driver in his 30s is currently hospitalized in Queens. He is not a TLC licensed driver, and drives on Long Island.

– Two women in Brooklyn in their 60s and 70s became symptomatic after returning on a cruise from Egypt with a known cluster of cases. They are both at home in mandatory quarantine.

– A male in his 30s from Brooklyn is currently in the hospital in serious condition after returning from a trip to Italy.

– Additionally, a Manhattan man in his late 50s tested positive after spending time with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 in Chile. He was discharged from the hospital this morning and is under mandatory quarantine.

By: TPS

The President of New York City’s Columbia University Lee Bollinger has spoken out against “rising anti-Semitism on campus,” stating that over the past year he had become “increasingly concerned” about the issue.

In his speech, Bollinger referred to an upcoming vote among undergraduate students at the university on whether Columbia should be recommended to divest from companies doing “business with Israel involving the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”

“There is no question that this is a highly contentious issue, both the underlying issues of Israel and the Palestinians and the idea of divestment as a means of protest about Israel’s policies,” Bollinger stated, explaining that he rejected the idea both on a general level, as he believes there is no broad consensus at the university over the issue, as well as on a personal level.

The proposed motion “imposes a standard on this particular political issue that is not right when one considers similar issues in other countries and in other contexts around the world. To my mind that is unwise, analytically flawed, and violates my sense of fairness and proportionality,” he explained.

Bollinger stated that his concerns were not just with the proposal “but with the broader atmosphere in which this and other related issues are being debated. Feelings are charged.”

The 19th President of Columbia University called upon students and staff “to be careful and vigilant against legitimate debate turning into anger, then to hatred and demonization, and invidious discrimination,” adding that Jewish students were feeling the change of atmosphere.

Bollinger rejected the “assertions by outsiders” that “Columbia is an anti-Semitic institution with systemic bigotry,” stating that “no Jewish student, faculty member, or staff I know believes this to be the case; nor do I.”

Columbia University is, however, frequently the scene of anti-Semitic incidents, statistics by the AMCHA Initiative show.

The NGO, “dedicated to investigating, documenting, educating about, and combating antisemitism at institutions of higher education in America,” recorded 123 incidents at Columbia in the past five years and has published statements in which Jewish students admit to feeling threatened on campus.

(TPS)

By Tom Roberts

Did the owner of Gristedes, John Catsimatidis, employ the latest in facial recognition software to gather information on the guys dating his daughter?

In an interview in the New York Post, Catsimatidis answered in the affirmative.

“Daddies are always looking after their daughters,” he reportedly told the newspaper.

“The doting dad was dining at Cipriani in SoHo when he noticed his daughter Andrea, 29, was there too — on a date,” the Post reported. “Fearing that some no good “charlatan” could be insinuating his way into the life of his beautiful, jet-setting, heiress daughter, Catsimatidis had a waiter take and send him a cellphone photo of the mystery man. He uploaded the photo into Clearview AI, and “We retrieved a picture of him in 20 seconds,” he said of the October 2018 secret spy mission.”

The guy being scanned turned out not to be an evil-doer – but in any case, he apparently never even know it was happening.

The billionaire first became acquainted with the software in a bid to decrease shoplifting in his stores beginning nearly four years ago.

Most importantly, the billionaire’s daughter Andrea told the New York Times that she held no ill will toward her protective dad. “I expect my dad to be able to do crazy things. He’s very technologically savvy. My date was very surprised.”

In a recent feature story titled “The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It,” the Times warned that “… without public scrutiny, more than 600 law enforcement agencies have started using Clearview in the past year, according to the company, which declined to provide a list. The computer code underlying its app, analyzed by The New York Times, includes programming language to pair it with augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every person they saw. The tool could identify activists at a protest or an attractive stranger on the subway, revealing not just their names but where they lived, what they did and whom they knew.”

On its web site, the company makes it clear that “Clearview is an after-the-fact research tool. Clearview is not a surveillance system and is not built like one. For example, analysts upload images from crime scenes and compare them to publicly available images… Just like other research systems, Clearview results legally require follow-up investigation and confirmation. Clearview was designed and independently verified to comply with all federal, state, and local laws… Clearview helps to exonerate the innocent, identify victims of child sexual abuse and other crimes, and avoid eyewitness lineups that are prone to human error.”

New Yorkers should text COVID to 692-692 to get regular updates on the latest developments regarding COVID-19

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday issued additional guidance regarding COVID-19. A new case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the Bronx today, bringing the citywide total to 16.

“As we continue to see community transmission between people who have no direct connection to travel to one of the affected countries, we are asking New Yorkers to adjust their routines to stem the spread of the virus where they can,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “I cannot reiterate enough that if you feel sick, stay home; we need every New Yorker to do their part to keep their neighbors safe.”

Protecting Yourself and Others

To reduce overcrowding, the City is advising private-sector employers and employees to consider telecommuting where possible and to consider staggered start times for workers. Those who take the subways at rush hour should consider commuting to work via alternative modes of transportation, like biking or walking, if possible.

Special Guidance for Vulnerable New Yorkers

The City is advising those with chronic lung disease, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or a weakened immune system to avoid unnecessary events and gatherings. If you have family or friends who have one of these conditions, do not visit them if you feel sick.

Those with a history of smoking and vaping are more likely to experience serious illness related to COVID-19. For help quitting, call 866-NY-QUITS.

Travel for City Employees

The City has ordered local government workers to cancel all non-essential international travel, effective immediately.

Keeping Kids Safe in Schools

The City will hire an additional 85 school nurses to ensure every district school building has a full-time nurse by the end of the week. All international school trips have been cancelled for the remainder of the school year. After sending a survey to nonpublic schools to help identify shortage of paper towels, soap, hand sanitizers, and medical supplies, the Department of Education will distribute materials to any school experiencing shortages.

Guidance for Doctors and Medical Providers

With private lab testing now available, the Health Department is sending guidance to providers to test patients with respiratory illnesses who have been admitted to the hospital but are not in the ICU. For non-hospitalized patients with fever and either cough or shortness of breath, priority will be given to patients 50 years and older or individuals of any age who have chronic conditions, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, weakened immune systems, or chronic lung disease. Those with COVID-19 symptoms and underlying chronic conditions are at greater risk for serious illness if they contract the virus.

Supporting Small Businesses

The City will provide relief for small businesses across the City seeing a reduction in revenue because of COVID-19. Businesses with fewer than 100 employees who have seen sales decreases of 25% or more will be eligible for zero interest loans of up to $75,000 to help mitigate losses in profit. The City is also offering small businesses with fewer than 5 employees a grant to cover 40% of payroll costs for two months (an average of $6,000) to help retain employees. Eligible owners who would like to learn more about these programs should call 311 for assistance.

New Yorkers should continue to exercise basic precautions while going about their lives: wash your hands, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, and cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing. Starting Monday, the City is expanding its public health advertising campaign to ensure New Yorkers have the facts and resources they need to protect themselves from COVID-19.

If you have any questions on finding medical care call 311. To get regular updates on the latest developments with coronavirus in New York City text COVID to 692-692. You will receive regular SMS texts with the latest news and developments.

Currently 19 New York City residents are under mandatory quarantine and 2,176 are under voluntary home isolation. Those under mandatory quarantine receive daily calls and twice weekly unannounced visits by DOHMH. Upon identification, all individuals under voluntary home isolation will receive calls and texts with information and reminders to call a doctor or DOHMH if they feel sick or develop symptoms, such as fever and cough or shortness of breath.

At a press conference on Sunday morning, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York had jumped from 89 to 105 overnight after new test results came in, as was reported by the Daily Mail of the UK.

The governor said that officials are working hard to identify new cases but have been greatly hindered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), saying it is ‘outrageous and ludicrous’ that the agency has not authorized private labs to conduct automated tests.

‘CDC, wake up. Let the states test. Let private labs test. Let’s increase as quickly possible our testing capacity so we identify the positive people, so we can isolate them,’ he said.

New York currently has seven private labs that could begin running automated tests immediately–processing as many as 2,000 samples per day, Cuomo said, as was reported by the Daily Mail.

That’s a significant improvement on the current rate of roughly 100 per day with manual tests.

He also took a shot at Donald Trump over the president’s remarks last week that ‘anyone who wants a test gets a test’.

‘We can’t say to people in this country or this state anyone who wants a test can have a test. It’s just not true,’ Cuomo said. ‘That’s what causes the panic and fear.’

By: Cynthia Persinelli

Ever hear of a skyscraper getting shorter?

In February, a State Supreme Court judge caused a stir when he ruled in favor of revoking the building permit for a 52-story tower at 200 Amsterdam Ave. It meant that the building’s developers, SJP Properties, had to cut its size by about 20 stories in order to avoid zoning problems.

According to the I Love the Upper West Side blog, “A recent ruling on 200 Amsterdam Ave was made public on Thursday, and included a statement from Justice W. Franc Perry that the developers “must bear the responsibility for any harsh results arising from the invalidation of the permit.”

The woman who spearheaded the efforts to have multiple stories of the building lopped off was Olive Freud. According to the NY Post, Ms. Freud, a 90-year old retired math teacher has no problem in confronting the agenda of billion-dollar developers.

“We’ve got all the developers in New York City up in arms,” Freud told The Post.

Noted Justice W. Franc Perry in rejecting the opinion that invalidating the permit for 200 Amsterdam would be unduly prejudicial, “Considering the record before this court, [the] owner must bear the responsibility for any harsh results arising from the invalidation of the permit.”

The ruling, the blog continued, “noted that the previous decision by the Board of Standards and Appeals, which sided with the developers, had relied on the “Minkin Memo,” which states that “a single zoning lot… may consist of one or more tax lots or parts of tax lots.” This was interpreted to mean that the developers assembled the lot they built on out of more than one tax lot. This has been a loophole used by developers since 1978. When the BSA granted the permit they argued that there was no hard law in place against this practice and so moved forward.”

It was not just another decision. As therealdeal.com pointed out, “The real estate industry was stunned by a recent ruling that could force developers to chop off the top of a near-complete residential tower. But they should have known better than to continue construction during a legal challenge, the judge wrote in his ruling, which was made public Thursday.”

The I Love the Upper West Side blog quoted “legal expert” Richard Epstein as saying: “It should be evident that if affirmed on appeal, Judge Perry’s order with respect to the Amsterdam building will create chaos. It is no simple matter to lop off the top of a building while trying to leave everything else intact. At a minimum, count on huge expense, noise, confusion and congestion, danger of serious accidents, contractual spats with contractors and pre-completion unit purchasers, and a fresh round of zoning and traffic disputes. Architects will have to reconfigure every internal system – heat, air conditioning, plumbing and more. The developer, therefore, is back at square one. If some penalty to the developer is needed, a hefty fine is surely preferable to this administrative and logistical nightmare.”

By: AP

First came the prayer ceremony at the conclusion of the Sabbath with their families, then, the celebration on the basketball court and the overflowing joy of March Madness victory.

Yeshiva University beat Penn State Harrisburg 102-83 on Saturday to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in the history of the Jewish Orthodox institution.

The Maccabees, named after the ancient Jewish rebel warriors, fought against all odds. They won their 29th straight game in a record-breaking season that began amid concerns over a global rise in anti-Semitism and has now been engulfed by the new coronavirus.

The game was played at an empty gym at Johns Hopkins University because of concerns over the virus. The legion of faithful Macs fans who chant out their names from the stands and often follow them on the road was replaced by the squeaking of sneakers and the unwavering support of their bench players, some wearing Jewish skullcaps, who chanted “De-fense! De-fense!”

During a timeout with less than three minutes to go and the score at 94-72, some danced “Stronger” by Kanye West that blared from the gym’s speakers. At the final buzzer, the Macs hugged on the court at an empty 1,100-seat Goldfarb Gymnasium and celebrated, pumping their fists and singing in Hebrew: “When the month of Adar begins, joy increases!”

“It means everything,” forward Gabriel Leifer said about the victory and reaching the Sweet 16. He got his fourth triple-double of the season, scoring 10 points and leading all players with 20 rebounds while dishing out 10 assists. Leifer had been voted most outstanding player of the Skyline Conference that the Macs recently won to qualify for the NCAAs.

“From the start of the year, after we lost in the conference final last year, we knew this year was going to be a big year for us,” he said.

Their records this season include the best start in school history, the longest winning streak and their first national ranking.

“It’s amazing, unbelievable,” co-captain Daniel Katz said. “I don’t know if we ever thought about this. We’ve come an unbelievable long way as a team, and it’s surreal.”

Some of the families of the Macs who had traveled from across the U.S. to support them followed the game from a hotel where they had relocated after Yeshiva’s team had its first hotel reservation in suburban Baltimore canceled over coronavirus fears. A student at the university tested positive, leading to the cancellation of classes.

“It’s special because a lot of families drove up Friday. That was after everyone found out that they weren’t allowed to go to the games,” Leifer said. “It shows their support from beginning to the end. Whether they can be there, whether they cannot, they’re always there for us.”

A day earlier, the Macs beat Worcester Polytechnic Institute in what was believed to be the first U.S. sports event held without fans because of the new coronavirus. After the game, the players rushed back to their hotel before sundown on time for the start of the Sabbath.

While they waited for their next game, some wore prayer shawls, shared a traditional dinner and played card and board games with their families. They couldn’t check scouting reports or watch the result of other games to find out who would be their next opponent. But now they know: they have advanced, and this time, they will face nationally ranked No. 3 Randolph-Macon College of Ashland, Virginia in the Sweet 16.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Leifer said. ”It’s an amazing experience, another game, and like we say: `We’re just surviving events no matter how hard or how difficult it is.’”

            (AP)

By: Mike Mustiglione

New York City’s real estate professionals are all abuzz over a recently filed lawsuit.

The suit, lodged against the owner of apartment complexes Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, has some investors and brokers feeling nervous.

The issue at hand centers on the question of whether or not landlord the Blackstone Group is free to charge market-rate rent increases for thousands of apartments starting in the next few months.

“A ruling in state court could answer that by wading into a murky area of the rent reforms passed last June. Those rules prevent landlords from jacking up regulated rents, but don’t specify whether apartment buildings that received a popular tax break called J-51–which is at the heart of the Stuyvesant Town case–should be counted,” reported Crain’s New York Business.

“Including J-51 in the changes to the rent rules was not originally conceived, but the issue is evolving at this point,” Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz told Crain’s. “I’m having my staff look at it and we should get their analysis soon on what the consequences could be.”

J-51 is a property tax exemption and abatement for renovating a residential apartment building or conversion to multiple dwellings. J-51 is a property tax exemption and abatement for renovating a residential apartment building. The benefit varies depending on the building’s location and the type of improvement. The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) determines the eligibility for the program. Finance administers the benefit. Once approved you must complete and submit Finance’s J-51 Property Tax Exemption and Abatement Application. You need to include the certificate of Eligibility from HPD with your application.

Blackstone, of course, remains a major player. The firm, headed by Stephen Schwarzman and Jonathan Gray, recently completed what forbes.com has referred to as “the next step in its conquest of Wall Street. On Thursday morning, Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm with nearly $600 billion in assets under management, eclipsed investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in market value, making it the second most valuable standalone investment firm on Wall Street to exchange traded fund giant BlackRock.”

Indeed, the firm’s market capitalization closed Thursday trading at $69.2 billion, Forbes added, “while Goldman Sachs closed at a value of $69 billion, according to data provider Sentieo. Morgan Stanley, after its February deal for online broker Etrade, changes hands at a market value of about $65 billion.”

By: Zach Beamus

New York City’s residential brokers are breathing a sigh of relief.

For now.

But in three months that respite will end, and a severe New York State rule will go into effect that keeps them from charging renters a hefty commission when renting them an apartment on behalf of a landlord.

Attorney General Letitia James has requested an adjournment for the court case concerning the rule until this coming, as per a note that her team filed Friday in state Supreme Court.

“The Real Estate Board of New York interpreted the AG’s letter as a sign that her office needed more time to grapple with the case’s legal issues,” reported Crain’s New York Business. “Attorneys for the government and the industry recognize the complexity of the issues raised in the matter and agree that additional time is necessary for preparation of court documents,” REBNY President James Whelan said in a statement provided to Crain’s.”

On March 6, James Whelan, President, The Real Estate Board of New York, released this statement regarding the issue: “Today, the New York State Attorney General’s Office, along with attorneys for REBNY, a number of our members, and the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR), agreed to an adjournment in the lawsuit filed last month in Albany County Supreme Court. The Attorney General’s Office submitted a letter requesting an extension of the dates in the litigation. Attorneys for the government and the industry recognize the complexity of the issues raised in the matter and agree that additional time is necessary for preparation of court documents.”

For its part, the New York State Association of REALTORS had this to say on its web site last month: “On Monday, February 10, 2020, the Supreme Court, Albany County, issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) prohibiting the Department of State from pursuing any disciplinary action against a brokerage acting as a landlord’s agent and collecting their commission directly from the tenant. The DOS is required to submit their paperwork to the court by March 13, 2020. The TRO is a direct result of legal action taken by NYSAR and REBNY against a Department of State (DOS) guidance document published on February 4, 2020 clarifying what activities a broker, and its associated licensees, may be disciplined for under the Tenant Protection Act (TPA).

“In the guidance document,” the association continued, “the DOS stated that a brokerage acting as landlord’s agent is prohibited from collecting a commission directly from the tenant as that would be a violation of the TPA. This would have had a significant impact on the custom and practice of residential rentals throughout New York. Until such time as the court rules otherwise, a broker representing a landlord as a landlord’s agent may continue to collect commissions directly from the tenant without fear of discipline by the DOS. NYSAR will notify all members through email if there are any changes to the TRO.”