Eric Adams vetoes law forcing landlords to offer property sales to nonprofits as Mamdani takes office

In his final day in office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), which was set to create massive hurdles and red tape for landlords to sell their buildings. COPA would have forced landlords to first offer up their property to non-profits and other city-approved entities before putting the buildings on the open market. This comes as a strong proponent of COPA, incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has cited it as a strategy to get rid of bad landlords. 

Adams, on Wednesday, vetoed the measure which was derided by landlord groups as well as others as an intrusion on private business deals. Adams also vetoed 18 other bills, according to The Real Deal. Three of the other 18 would have made other rules for city housing in the already heavily regulated housing market.

COPA would have forced landlords to tell nonprofits that qualify for the properties nearly a month prior to putting them on the public market. Additionally, if the property owner rejected an offer by a nonprofit during that time, the owner would then have to go back to a nonprofit if they got a private deal afterwards, asking them if they would match the private offer. The regulation would have extended closing deals and heavily slowed down the purchase and selling process.

The bill has been lauded by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was inaugurated on Thursday, as well as Mamdani's supporters. It will now be up to the next City Council as well as the presumed NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin to override the vetoes from Adams. COPA was approved by 30 votes and did not have a supermajority. Menin also notably abstained from the COPA vote.

“Rather than working collaboratively with the Council, the Adams administration has too often sidelined the legislative process,” Menin said in a statement. “For years, agencies failed to provide basic data, commissioners skipped hearings, and meaningful negotiations were pushed to the last minute.”

Mamdani, however, has said that COPA should be used to get rid of bad landlords and wrote in his policy proposal that NYC should "pass COPA to give CLTs [Community land trusts] and non-profits the right of first refusal when landlords sell." He has also called for a rent freeze, publicly-owned grocery stores, and increasing the minimum wage to $30 an hour.