Section 11-354. Additional method to enforce payment of tax liens held by the city

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law and notwithstanding  any  omission  to  hold  a  tax lien sale, whenever any tax, assessment,
  sewer rent, sewer surcharge, water rent, any charge that is made a  lien
  subject to the provisions of this chapter or chapter four of this title,
  or  interest and penalties thereon, has been due and unpaid for a period
  of at least one year from the date on which the tax, assessment or other
  legal charge represented thereby became a lien, or in the  case  of  any
  class  one  property  or  any  class  two property that is a residential
  condominium or residential cooperative, as such classes of property  are
  defined  in  subdivision one of section eighteen hundred two of the real
  property tax law, or in the case of  a  multiple  dwelling  owned  by  a
  company  organized pursuant to article XI of the private housing finance
  law  with  the  consent  and  approval  of  the  department  of  housing
  preservation  and development, for a period of at least three years from
  the date on which the tax, assessment or other  legal  charge  became  a
  lien,  the  city,  as owner of a tax lien, may maintain an action in the
  supreme court to foreclose such lien. Such action shall be  governed  by
  the  procedures  set  forth in section 11-335 of this chapter; provided,
  however, that such parcel shall only be sold to the highest  responsible
  bidder. Such purchaser shall be deemed qualified as a responsible bidder
  pursuant to such criteria as are established in rules promulgated by the
  commissioner  of  finance  after  consultation  with the commissioner of
  housing preservation and development.
    (b) At a sale pursuant to a judgment in an action brought pursuant  to
  subdivision  (a)  of  this section to foreclose a tax lien, the city may
  purchase property subject to such lien in accordance with the provisions
  of section 11-339 of this chapter.
    (c) The provisions of this  section  shall  not  affect  any  existing
  remedy  or  procedure  for  the  enforcement or foreclosure of tax liens
  provided for in this code or any other  law,  but  the  remedy  provided
  herein  for  foreclosure  of tax liens shall be in addition to any other
  remedies or procedures provided by any general, special  or  local  law.
  Notwithstanding  any  other  provision of this code, the commissioner of
  finance shall be authorized to agree to forebear to commence an  in  rem
  action against property which has an outstanding and unredeemed tax lien
  certificate  previously  sold  by  the  city  and  held by a third party
  pursuant to this chapter.