The New York State Bar Association has announced that Joel H. Sachs, Senior Counsel at Keane & Beane, P.C. has been appointed Chairman of a Statewide Task Force to address the issue of Zombie Houses. This subject concerns residential houses in New York State wherein the borrower has defaulted on payments to the lending institution holding the mortgage. These houses either will be foreclosed by the lender, are in the process of being foreclosed or have already been foreclosed by the lender. Unfortunately, whatever legal status the Zombie Houses are in, many of them have been abandoned by the occupants and have been left in a state of disrepair. Aside from the fact that real property taxes have not been paid on the Zombie Houses, such houses have become an eyesore and blight to the community and have resulted in significant decreases in property values of surrounding homes in the municipality itself. This situation has become a major Statewide issue.
The work of the Task Force will be to increase public awareness of the Zombie Houses problem and recommend legislative, administrative and judicial solutions at both the state and municipal level, and thus reconcile the interests of lenders, impacted homeowners and municipalities.
The Task Force will also be testifying at various hearings to be held by the New York State Legislature and will also be presenting a program at the Annual Meeting of the New York State Bar Association to be held in New York City in January 2017.
Mr. Sachs, in addition to having an extensive real estate, environmental and municipal law practice at Keane & Beane, P.C., is a Past Chairman of both the Real Property Law Section and the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has also served for over thirty years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace Law School in White Plains, New York and has lectured and written extensively on real estate, environmental and municipal law issues.
For further information about the Zombie Houses Task Force, kindly contact Joel Sachs at (914) 946-4777 or by email at jsachs@kblaw.com.
