Landlords take sidewalk responsibility in their stride.

Contrary to a New York Times article that promised woe for landlords as a result of the shift in sidewalk responsibility, the City's real estate community is not taking the matter to heart.

A recently passed piece of legislation released New York' government from having to make sidewalk repairs or pay for accidents when landlords are unable to do so.

But owners of commercial and residential buildings have gotten so used to footing the bill in the first place, they do not expect either a spike in claims or a significant increase in insurance premiums.

"I don't think we are going to see a big impact from this law, to be honest," said Marolyn Davenport, senior vice president of management services with the Real Estate Board of New York. "We've had to maintain our sidewalks in good condition before and owners have gotten sued for sidewalk accidents in the past. So, we were always responsible."

According to Davenport and Nicholas LaPorte, executive vice president of the Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York, the biggest problem the new legislation may present is dealing with the sidewalk trees, which will remain the City's responsibility. Trees are often the cause of sidewalk accidents since they cause cracks in the pavement.

"What property owners will have to be vigilant about now is taking care of any trees in front of their buildings," noted LaPorte.

"The City will have to step up to its responsibility in terms of cutting them down. In reality, this is the kind of law that makes everybody crazy because we'll now have to deal with the Parks Department, but it kind of doesn't make sense, because owners already had this responsibility before."

As far as insurance premiums are concerned, most landlords expect them to increase somewhat, but not necessarily because of the new law.

"The insurance market is so volatile, I can't say that the premiums will go up specifically because of that," said LaPorte. "If people take out increased coverage for sidewalk responsibility, they might rise, but it remains to be seen."

However, just the idea of an extra expense is getting some landlords' blood boiling.

"This is another example of the Bloomberg administration shifting the cost of running the City onto the real estate industry," said Robert Nelson, owner of Nelson Management Group, whose company owns and manages apartment buildings throughout New York. "We are very particular about how we run our buildings and we try to make sure that there are no hazards anywhere near them, but we don't own the sidewalks. The government is just shifting the cost onto [someone else]."

Nelson hasn't heard of an increase in sidewalk accidents since the law took effect on September 15, but then the real test--winter icing--hasn't taken place yet.

"For as long as I've been in this business, about 80% of these kinds of claims are frivolous lawsuits," he noted.