Members of Community Board 4’s Economic & Development and Housing & Land Committees discuss “cease and desist” zones at a meeting on Tuesday, January 27.
By Jacqueline Cardenas | news@queensledger.com
BUSHWICK — Brooklyn Community Board 4 members are likely to support a bill that would expand “cease and desist” zones across Kings County.
The bill makes it illegal for real estate agents and brokers to aggressively solicit homeowners in an attempt to get them to sell their property.
“This includes by phone contact, in-person contact, stopping you on the street, leaving any fliers or mailers in your mailbox or at your doorstep,” said Isaiah Pecou, the Legislative Research Assistant for Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman during Tuesday night’s community meeting. “Any form of real estate solicitation would be illegal should this piece of legislation pass.”
Pecou attended the community meeting to garner support from its members to sign off on a letter of recommendation on the bill, to which many said they would approve once they read over the fine print.
Cease and desist zones were first established in New York City in 1989 and covered the entire County of Queens, according to the New York State Senate website. The zones were later renewed or expanded in 2017 for parts of Queens and the Bronx, and in 2020 for parts of Brooklyn.
Anne Guiney, the Economic and Development (EDC) and Housing and Land Committee (HLU) Chairperson, said she remembers the way community members in East New York “fought pretty hard” to get the cease and desist zones expanded in Brooklyn.
“I mean, we would hear stories of people rolling up with a literal duffel bag full of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash,” Guiney said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I would turn into like Bugs Bunny with like dollar signs in my eyes if I saw that.”
The consequences for violating a cease and desist zone can range from “a small reprimand” by the Department of State, to a fine of $1,000, to a potential revocation of your real estate license, Pecou said.
Local lawmakers — including Roxane Persaud, Julia Salazar, and Kevin Parker — are pushing to expand the zones across Brooklyn.
Robert Camacho, chairperson for Brooklyn Community Board Four, asked Pecou how people who are renters instead of homeowners could be incentivized to support this bill even though they may not be as impacted by solicitors.
“Their philosophy may be, well we don’t care,” Camacho said, referring to some renters who make up the Bushwick community.
“As a renter, I will jump in and say that I think it’s really important to have people who have lived in this neighborhood for decades and owned their houses, they should get to make that choice in peace and quiet, and slowly and deliberately, and not with some jerk pounding on their door all day long,” Guiney responded.
“There’s absolutely no downside to renters,” Pecou said, responding to Camacho’s question.
“All this does is say that the owner of homes can no longer be harassed, they can no longer be constantly solicited, and you can’t show up with briefcases and bags of cash at people’s doors and say: ‘I’ll buy your house right now,’ which by the way, is usually for way less than what it’s worth,” he said.
There is not yet concrete data of how many total people have recently violated the cease and desist law, but Pecou said that “anecdotally” he has heard there has been a “decrease in the number of solicitations that people received” though “not a complete stoppage.”
There is currently a public registry website where Kings County residents can search which properties are currently under a cease and desist zone. If a homeowner would like to opt-in to be a part of a cease and desist zone they can do so here.
The caveat is that if a person puts their home up for sale even if they already enlisted themselves on the registry and a real estate agent tries to solicit them, it would not violate the cease and desist law if it were to pass, Pecou said.
The committee did not have enough members present in order for it to officially vote on whether they should approve a letter of recommendation for the cease and desist legislation.
The community board will gather the few concerns some members raised, such as wanting a deeper read at the bill, and then present the bill information during the full board meeting on February 18 at 6 p.m. at the Hope Gardens Tenant Association, 195 Linden St.
Despite the lack of quorum at Tuesday night’s meeting, Guiney said it sounded like board members were “generally in favor” of the bill.
