Hometown Happenings: Rental Registry

By Supervisor George Hoehmann

Since becoming Supervisor three years ago, one of my top priorities was to step up the enforcement of our Town Code, in order to protect our quality of life in Clarkstown. As part of that effort, we created the rental registry to ensure safe and legal apartments across Clarkstown. If you own a one or two family home within the Town, you are required to register that property with the Building Department and get a rental permit.

We created a rental registry to ensure that these homes are not misused by those who would endanger the lives of tenants and our first responders, while potentially depreciating our property values.

Public safety is at the heart of why the town created the registry. When a rental unit is registered, our Building Department will conduct periodic inspections to ensure the town and New York State Building and Fire Codes are adhered to. The main focus of these inspections will be related to fire safety, such as the presence of or lack thereof of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

This law was not created to be an onerous or burdensome regulation. The rental registry form is very easy to complete and can be found on the town’s website under the Building Department forms.

My office and the Building Department is working with local realtors to help educate rental property owners on the new local law. Together we can do what the law was intended to do: to preserve the character of our community and maintain the property values that make the salability of homes attractive for both buyers and sellers.

The rental registry is another tool we can use to help preserve our quality of life. As long as I am Supervisor, I will continue to do all I can to keep Clarkstown a great place to live, work and raise a family.

  Clarkstown, fire code, george hoehmann, supervisor, town code