Council Member Chi Ossé Advises Brooklyn Residents on Handling Property Tax Liens

By Fern Gillespie
City Council Member Chi Ossé wants to remind Brooklyn homeowners who have missed payments on property tax, water, or sewage bills that their property may be on the list for the City’s May 20 tax lien sale. To help Brooklyn homeowners with their property tax lien concerns, Ossé has partnered with the NYC Department of Finance to host a workshop on removing property off the tax lien list. Workshop discussions include payment plans.

The workshop is on April 22 from 5 PM to 8 PM at 1368 Fulton Street in the Multipurpose Room.
If property tax, water, or sewage bills are unpaid, at the May 20 property tax lien sale, the City is allowed to sell this debt to a third party. It’s usually a private investor or a private debt service. This does not mean that your property has been sold. However, this unresolved outstanding debt can make the upcoming property tax lien sale the first step toward foreclosure.

A homeownership advocate, every Thursday, Council Member Ossé’s office has one-on-one homeownership counseling through Neighborhood Housing Services of Bedford-Stuyvesant. He represents Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights and at age 27, he is the only GenZ representative in City Council. Our Time Press spoke with Council Member Chi Ossé about his advice to homeowners handling property tax liens.

Why did you decide to conduct the property tax lien program in your office?
Being a representative of the city, we do receive notices of properties that are currently put on the tax lien sale list. First and foremost, the tax lien sales are very controversial. I have an array of different problems with it. How it impacts communities of color and Black communities. How it attributes to gentrification and a slew of issues that I have with the property tax lien sales. So, we get a list of addresses within the district that have missed payments on property taxes or water or sewage bills.

As someone who is very concerned about the tax lien sale and how it takes place, I wanted to make sure that people were notified about this. So, my office sent hundreds of letters out to our constituency. Especially to those who are going to be put on the tax lien sales and let them know that they have this outstanding debt and they could settle. That’s whether they’re putting together a payment plan with the Department of Finance or paying in full so that they would not be put on the tax lien sale.

My office, in addition to sending this letter out and notifying folks, we’re partnering the Department of Finance on two workshops for homeowners to learn about how they can remove themselves from their property list.

How do you explain to people the importance that a property tax lien can even happen from not paying a water bill or sewer bill?
We’re so inundated with mail, emails and bills. Since not everything coming from the city is digital, it can get confusing. This is especially for some of our seniors and some of our residents who have multiple jobs. You can miss a property tax payment or a water bill payment or a sewage bill payment and it could put your home in jeopardy of being foreclosed. Many people don’t even know sometimes if they’re put on those lists. But because this is something that I deeply take seriously, we knew that we directly had to send mail out, had to put notices out, had to do some events and try to get people involved as much as possible to prevent them from losing their homes.

How did you get involved with advocating for Black and BIPOC property owners in Brooklyn?
It’s an issue that impacts my community. I was elected multiple times to support my constituency. I come from a family of homeowners. I understand how difficult it is sometimes to maintain a home and how many bills and mail and calls you receive. So, this is not something that’s foreign to me. I’ve seen it happen to my parents and my grandmothers. All politics and all policies are personal. That’s where this advocacy truly came from.

You introduced the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act, which City Council passed. Why is FARE important?
The FARE Act is a bill that I passed in November that would ban the forcing of broker fees for tenants. So, 9 times out of 10, if you’re a tenant looking for a home in New York City, you may find a home on your own or word of mouth and from a friend. You would have to pay your broker fee ranging from 15% to 30% of your annual rent. I’m not anti-broker. I’m anti forcing a fee onto people who did not hire a service. If you hire a plumber, you don’t force the plumber to pay, right? It would basically say that whoever hires a broker, whether they’re a landlord or tenant, would pay the broker fee in New York City.

You host a popular video online series called “Why Is Shit Not Working?” for New Yorkers. Why did you create it?
On “Why Is Shit Not Working?,” we like to breakdown why so many things in the City don’t work — ranging from housing to infrastructure to our subway system. You know, years and years of bureaucracy have resulted in a city that sometimes doesn’t work. I believe, as someone who works for the government, that my job is to make people’s lives easier and better, not more complicated. It’s an educational series that not only teaches people about civics and the different powers of government, but it gives a bit more like an explanation on why things are and why they don’t work. Also pushing for solutions that energize people to get more involved in the political process. We’re really reaching those who are apolitical and activating them to make a future that is worth living.

What do you advise New Yorkers to do when they discover a tax lien on their property?
Reach out to your City Council Member’s office. I really believe that we are the middle people between you and your City government. Even if we’re telling you to go to the Department of Finance portal and apply for a payment plan. Just getting on it immediately with some of our assistance is the best route to go about it.

For more information on City Council Member Chi Ossé’s property tax lien workshop with NYC Department of Finance or home ownership information, contact his office at district36@council.nyc.gov, or call 718-919-0740.