TOH Issues Response Regarding Illegal Apartments

On June 2, East Meadow Patch user wrote the following question in the East Meadow Patch Q&A section.

"Kate murray...when are you going to get tough eradicating illegal apartments?"

A town spokesman has issued a response, which you can read below:

"Here at the Town of Hempstead, we are tough when it comes to responding to reports of illegal apartments. We respond to complaints like any other township across the country. When a complaint comes in, we immediately check on it.

As an aside for your information, we can't just break down doors, not without a warrant. Our building inspectors are not peace officers, nor are they the district attorney.

However, not too long ago, the Town of Hempstead enacted legislation that places more of an onus on property owners to disprove the existence of illegal apartments. We can act on new grounds on homes, such as external indicators, that we couldn't get into in the past. Some of these indicators include multiple car registrations for unrelated people, multiple utility meters, multiple mailboxes, multiple entries and multiple doorbells.

It is also important to note that the town has increased fines three times in the last three years."