For the first time in 20 years, North Hempstead residents whose homes are not compliant with the town code due to previous corruption in the building department will finally get some relief.
The North Hempstead Town Board unanimously adopted a law on Tuesday, July 8, that grants homeowners who were given “erroneous” building permits from 2000-2006 for homes that exceeded town building codes a 35% discount on fines.
But, affected residents and town board members argued that more should be done, specifically for homeowners who are innocent of the scheme. Town board members said that amendments will be sought in the future to expand this relief.
“You’ve just waved a magic wand and said, ‘even though they violate town code, they’re now [legal],’” Town Council Member Robert Troiano said. “It’s the arbitrariness of this that’s a problem.”
Homeowners will have a year to file with the town to establish a payment plan and then two years to pay it off. They must apply by August 2026. Payment plans could amount to thousands of dollars a month.
Homeowners could also go through the zoning board for relief.
From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, the town building department officials wrongfully issued certificates of occupancy to builders who constructed homes that exceeded what was permitted under the town code.
In 2007, multiple North Hempstead Building Department employees were arrested and later convicted after a 16-month corruption investigation. Many were arrested for bribery.
That year, homeowners in the Roslyn Country Club, as well as many others throughout the town, were informed that their certificates of occupancy were invalid due to these department employees’ actions.
A remedy before Tuesday had not been found, with some homeowners unable to sell their homes during these 20 years and facing high costs to make their home fit the code, which could require tearing down parts of the home.
Troiano pointed out, though, that not all homeowners are completely innocent of the scheme and that some were also in cahoots with it.
Deputy town attorney Debbie Algios said that because of this, they didn’t want to reward individuals by removing fines entirely, but rather incentivize them to make the homes legal.
The town established a committee in October to seek a resolution for approximately 20 homeowners affected by the issue. The committee focused on only Roslyn Country Club homeowners, but the recommendation was for all afflicted homes throughout the town.
Troiano called the committee’s 35% fine discount “arbitrary” and said that innocent people are still being penalized for something they had no doing in.
This included Ralph and Jennifer Schrader, whose Roslyn Heights home is affected. They recommended assembling a tribunal to address each case individually to determine the best course of action.
Ralph Schrader said the remedy should be found between the town and builders, not the innocent homeowners.
“I do the right thing, I did the right thing, and there should be more accountability from the town that this happened in the first place,” Ralph Schrader said. “…How does that carry over to us? I’m just dumbfounded that I’m even still speaking about this 20 years later.”
Algios said the recommended solution was a compromise, citing the inability to prove whether homeowners were or were not involved in the scheme. Board members and the Schraders refuted this, saying there are ways to prove who was involved.
Amendments board members proposed to be addressed in the future include extending the payment deadline to permit homeowners to pay off the fines when they sell their home, whenever that may be, and to potentially increase the fine discount.
The board opted to approve the law as presented on Tuesday in order to take action immediately for those who may need relief sooner.
