949 Grand Street,

Brooklyn, NY 11211

Cheap -- but still NOT worth it.

From the moment we moved in, the building was filthy and clearly neglected. We discovered a roach infestation almost immediately, which Miriam—the landlord—completely ignored despite multiple complaints. She even tried to blame the roaches on our cat. When I asked the exterminators directly, they said that was absolutely false—the problem was building-wide and needed far more serious treatment than she was willing to provide.

Then came the health hazards: blood sat in the hallway for over ten days, completely untouched. Not long after, a bed bug-infested mattress was dumped in the hallway and left there for weeks. No warning, no removal, no extermination—just rotting in a shared hallway. When I asked Miriam about it, she flat-out denied there were bed bugs in the building. But the annual bed bug disclosure report—required by the city and made public—later confirmed a known infestation. She knowingly lied to us.

Her strategy is simple: keep tenants in the dark and hope they stay quiet. And if you ask questions or assert your rights, she becomes aggressive and threatening.

She attempted to illegally raise the rent on our rent-stabilized unit by nearly 20%, and when we challenged her on it, she tried to pressure us out. Her message was clear: if you won’t tolerate the neglect, the lies, and the harassment, you’re not welcome here.

The heat went out constantly during the winter, and her excuse was that “it’s an old building”—as if that made it okay to leave tenants freezing. She takes zero responsibility for providing basic, legally required services.

To make matters worse, she refuses to provide a phone number or any way to reach her in an emergency. Everything has to go through email—and even serious issues often go days without a reply.

The brokers who rented us the unit, Thomas Babusik and Michael DeSena, also acted in bad faith. They rented the apartment to us under false pretenses about the building’s rent-stabilized status, which I have in writing via email. When we discovered the truth and reached out to clarify what the landlord was allowed to charge, they completely ghosted us—no responses to calls, texts, or emails.

The building is owned by Jovani Fashion, the formalwear company, and the owners—Abraham and Saul Maslavi—should be held accountable for the disgraceful, dangerous conditions and illegal practices their tenants endure under Miriam’s management.

If you value your health, your safety, or your rights as a tenant, stay far away. This building—and this entire ownership group—should be investigated.

Fire Miriam Teitelbaum

The units are fairly cheap and rent stabilized.

tldr, cockroaches, pests, non-responsive / not helpful landlord

The landlord / property manager doesn't care about the tenants at all. Most complaints and issues go without a response. If they do respond they're often argumentative and will tell you that the things you're having an issue with aren't actually an issues (I don't want to get into specifics as I'm waiting for a security deposit back and don't want to be retaliated against). The entire building is swarming with cockroaches as well as other pests. There are foul smells throughout the common spaces. If you do consider living here I encourage you to go the back patio of the bar downstairs and look at the back of the building from the outside -- it's in absolute shambles. The landlord is wildly unprofessional and not qualified to be managing a building like this. She refuses to give out her phone number (even for emergencies) so the only way to contact her is via email which takes days to get a response. The building technically has a super but he's basically just there to take out the trash and doesn't help with any other concerns. Trust me, don't bother living here. You will regret it. The building itself is also disgusting and you can tell non of the common areas have been cleaned in a decade and there's an overwhelmingly rotten smell in the hallways.

Care about your tenants even just a fraction, clean up the building, fix the cockroach and other pest issues.