NY Governor Andrew Cuomo
ALBANY – New Yorkers who are concerned with vacant or abandoned houses in their neighborhood can now report them to a state agency.
On Tuesday Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of a Zombie Property hotline at the New York State Department of Financial Services.
The hotline is part of legislation signed by Governor Cuomo last week to prevent foreclosures and curb the threat posed to communities by “zombie properties” across the state.
According to the governor, the state DFS will maintain an electronic registry of vacant and abandoned properties and DFS will use the information to identify the mortgage servicer to facilitate appropriate remedial actions as outlined in the legislation.
New Yorkers can contact the Department of Financial Services (DFS) at (800) 342-3736 or online at www.dfs.ny.gov.
The “zombie properties” legislation also includes measures to assist homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure, improve the efficiency and integrity of the mandatory settlement conferences, and establishes a pre-foreclosure duty to maintain on mortgagees, create an expedited foreclosure process for vacant and abandoned properties, create an electronic vacant property registry, and establish a Consumer Bill of Rights.
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