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On March 27, 2020 at 11AM, Empire State Development refined the definition of essential businesses or entities in NYS as to construction, as follows:

All non-essential construction must shut down except emergency construction, (e.g. a project necessary to protect health and safety of the occupants, or to continue a project if it would be unsafe to allow to remain undone until it is safe to shut the site). 

Essential construction may continue and includes roads, bridges, transit facilities, utilities, hospitals or health care facilities, affordable housing, and homeless shelters. At every site, if essential or emergency non-essential construction, this includes maintaining social distance, including for purposes of elevators/meals/entry and exit. Sites that cannot maintain distance and safety best practices must close and enforcement will be provided by the state in coordination with the city/local governments. This will include fines of up to $10,000 per violation. 

For purposes of this section construction work does not include a single worker, who is the sole employee/worker on a job site.

Be warned.

By Executive Order 202.11, Governor Cuomo enacted new penalties, in addition to what we discussed in our blog - What Happens When You Ignore the Essential Services Executive Order, if you keep your real estate open in violation of an Executive Order.

The new penalty order states as follows:

During the period when an Executive Order limiting operation of a type of facility or limiting the number of persons who may occupy any space is in effect, any operation of such a facility or occupancy of any such space by more than the number of persons allowed by said Executive Order shall be deemed to be a violation of law and in particular, but not by way of limitation, shall be deemed to be a violation of the Uniform Code or other local building code in effect in the jurisdiction in which the facility or space is located. In the event of any such violation, any state, county, or local police officer authorized to enforce laws within the jurisdiction in which the space or facility is located is authorized to remove persons from such space or facility. In addition, in the event of such violation, any state, county, or local code enforcement official or fire marshal authorized to enforce the Uniform Code or other local building code within the jurisdiction in which the facility or space is located is authorized to issue an appearance ticket, a Notice of Violation, an Order to Remedy such violation, which shall require immediate compliance, and/or a Do Not Occupy Order to any owner, operator, or occupant of any such facility or space. Nothing in this provision shall limit the authority of any governmental unit or agency to take such other and/or additional enforcement actions to the extent necessary to ensure compliance with such occupancy-related directives or facility operation-related directives.

 As such, here is your exposure:

• Charge of "violation of law"
• Charge of "violation of the Uniform Code or other local building code"
• Removal by police
• Receipt of an appearance ticket, Notice of Violation, and/or Order to Remedy
• Receipt of a Do Not Occupy Order to the "owner, operator, or occupant of any such facility or space"

By way of Executive Order 202.11, licensees "time to renew a license" has been extended "to the 30th day following the expiration of this Executive Order."

This Executive Order expires on April 26, 2020 and as such renewal is extended to May 26, 2020 for real estate brokers and salespersons.

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Businesses devastated by quarantine should proactively negotiate forbearances with their lenders to avoid foreclosure and monetary judgments.

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Beyond injuring others and being a terrible person, have you looked-up the exposure for violating Executive Order 202.8.

To remind you, 202.8 is what provides, in pertinent part, that "[e]ach employer shall reduce the in-person workforce at any work locations by 100% no later than March 22 at 8 p.m."

As to exposure for violating 202.8, it provides that "[a]ny business violating the above order shall be subject to enforcement as if this were a violation of an order pursuant to section 12 of the Public Health Law." Then, section 12 of the Public Health Law provides for "a civil penalty of not to exceed two thousand dollars for every such violation" for the first violation and a penalty "not to exceed five thousand dollars for a subsequent violation." However, if your violation "results in serious physical harm to any patient or patients, the penalty is "not to exceed ten thousand dollars."

So, if you infect someone, you are getting charged with a $10K penalty per violation.

Oh, by the way, the State can also get an injunction against your continued violations and potentially shut down your business, remote or otherwise, with that injunction.

Don't be crazy and ignore the order. Instead, if you believe you are essential, apply for a designation here.

If you learn that someone is infected with Coronavirus in a unit, do not notify other tenants or conduct cleaning.

Instead, contact your local (County / City) and follow their guidance. Do nothing else.

You are ill-equipped to create a protocol and may further injure your tenants by acting imprudently.

There are privacy concerns, cleanliness concerns, isolation concerns, testing concerns and the like.

Therefore, if you learn of a positive diagnosis in your property, contact your local health department and follow their guidance.

On March 21, 2020, the Governor issued NYS Executive Order 202.9, which provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

Subdivision two of Section 39 of the Banking Law is hereby modified to provide that it shall be deemed an unsafe and unsound business practice if, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, any bank which is subject to the jurisdiction of the Department shall not grant a forbearance to any person or business who has a financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic for a period of ninety days... The Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services shall ensure under reasonable and prudent circumstances that any licensed or regulated entities provide to any consumer in the State of New York an opportunity for a forbearance of payments for a mortgage for any person or entity facing a financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Superintendent shall promulgate emergency regulations to require that the application for such forbearance be made widely available for consumers, and such application shall be granted in all reasonable and prudent circumstances solely for the period of such emergency. 

While a cursory reading shows that mortgage help is on the way, many uncertainties remain, including:

• What does subject to the jurisdiction of the Department mean in the Order? Specifically, there are two charting systems for banks; federal and state. The Federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency controls federally chartered banks pursuant to the National Bank Act. Generally, you can tell that a bank is federally chartered because it has the initials N.A. after its name. As a result, NYS doesn't have jurisdiction over federally chartered banks so how does this work if you have a loan through a federal bank like many NYS residents do?
• When is the Superintendent promulgating emergency regulations and how are consumers going to understand those regulations if attorneys at law were not labeled as essential services under the quarantine and therefore are becoming less available by the minute? Yes, some law firms are open and working remotely, but for how long with many clerks' offices closed and all court deadlines tolled (yesterday's Executive Order 202.8), including "any specific time limit for the commencement, filing, or service of any legal action, notice, motion, or other process or proceeding."
• By adding the words business & entity, is it intended that this applies to both residential and commercial property?
• Is there a limit on the amount of the mortgage for this to be applicable?
• After the forbearance is over, what happens to the money deferred (i.e., back end balloon, recapitalized, ballooned immediately, something else)?
• Will the Superintendent of DFS be answering these questions or someone else; plus, will the answers be part of a regulation or just advisory? 

Please don't misunderstand this post. We 100% support the quarantine and also support the forbearance. Instead, this blog is designed to prevent further hardship to the vulnerable who take a leap of faith on their mortgage without first researching facts.

Get facts before you act and the facts aren't out yet - so, CONTINUE PAYING YOUR MORTGAGE for now.