Since Certificate of No Harassment Unit of the Housing Preservation and Development of the City of New York was inundated with hundreds of thousands owners’ applications for Certificates of No Harassment pre – pandemic that one can only imagine what the grinding halt of the COVID-19 lockdown meant for owners waiting for a determination on applications that had already been pending before the agency for the past year. It meant that these owners’ construction projects would remain at a standstill the entire time that the agency was at a standstill due lockdown. While most employers and institutions easily implemented a work from home initiative, city agencies were not equipped for such a seamless transition. It immediately became clear to us that our clients needed us to establish a line of communication with the agency despite being repeatedly advised that the offices are closed until further notice. Once a line of communication is established, we use it wisely and work diligently to keep our clients’ applications at the forefront of the agency’s piles of applications. Thereby, a Certificate of No Harassment issued for our client at a time when the agency was reportedly closed due to COVID-19.

Carolyn Z. Rualo of Adam Leitman Bailey P.C, represented the landlord in this matter.f