Squatter Prevention in Port Jervis
Councilman and city marshal Stan Siegel encounters "over-occupied" rentals, he said.
A local law to prevent squatting is being refined in the Port Jervis Common Council Code Committee, Mayor Kelly Decker said. The law requires registration of short term rentals.
“The short term rental law would give the city control over squatters and those that have no long term lease,” he said. “The control will help avoid property devaluing and destruction by people staying somewhere with no legal right to be there, who don’t care about the property. We currently are not having an issue, but it’s a growing trend in New York, and we’re trying to get ahead of it as the housing crisis grows.”
However, Councilman-at-Large Stan Siegel, a city marshal, said, “It’s pretty prevalent that apartments are over-occupied.”
He recalled doing an eviction on Jersey Ave. recently, where one person was on the lease and five living there were not. He also sees multiple families living in a residence because of housing shortage or cost.
“I don’t know if people are actually squatting, but I average a few evictions a month,” he said. “The warrant may or may not indicate the reason. All you know is they didn’t pay rent. Many evictions involve people still not paying rent since the pandemic. Some landlords are owed tens of thousands of dollars. I always go a day in advance to make sure people have a place to go.”
He refers them to realtors likely to know of vacancies.
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