Bounty Hunters Noise Violations Put On Ice

It’s with great pleasure that the NYC Hospitality Alliance reports that yesterday the City Council overwhelmingly voted in favor and passed Council Member Jim Gennaro's bill we fought for to limit the bounty hunter noise violations that have been unfairly issued to so many restaurants and bars. 

In the last year, two individuals were responsible for issuing 90% of the roughly 6,000 so-called citizen noise complaints. These individuals have abused a 50-year-old law designed to allow citizens to report real noise problems in their neighborhoods. The law was never intended to be a big money-making business for bounty hunters. 

The bill passed yesterday significantly reduces Bounty Hunter incentives by reducing the bounty they get for new violations they issue from hundreds of dollars each to $5 or $10 dollars. In addition, the bill significantly reduces the potential maximum fine of all pending Bounty Hunter violations that have not yet been fully adjudicated to $50. The bounty they received would be half of that. The goal is to disincentivize the Bounty Hunters from continuing to exploit this law by not allowing them to make lots of money on the backs of local businesses.

We urge the Mayor Adams to sign this bill into law ASAP to reduce this burden against small businesses being targeted by bounty hunters. We thank Council Member Jim Gennaro for his quick action and leadership on this issue as well as all his colleagues who voted for this bill.

We’ll keep you updated.