A city councilman is proposing to hand out fines to landlords that don't keep their buildings in good condition.

Ritchie Torres (D - The Bronx) is proposing the bill with the help of Antonio Reynoso (D - Queens/Brooklyn).

Currently, when officers from the city's Housing Preservation and Development respond to a complaint from a tenant, the landlord is given only a notice of violation. The tenant can call the HPD to re-inspect 30 to 90 days later, but if the conditions are still not up to par, the landlord just gets another violation.

Torres is proposing that these re-inspections come at a price. Every re-inspection would result in a fee until the repair needed is made.

Reynoso claims that landlords try to make money by kicking out rent-stabilized tenants by not making repairs for months or years at a time. He says that this bill would put an end to that practice.

The bill still needs to go through some hearings in front of the City Council before it can pass.