Uncouth Owner & Shoddy ‘Renovation’ without Permits
Pros
- Location & apartment size
Cons
- As of October, 2024 the three-unit building has 200+ open HPD violations, including literally dozens of B Class and C Class violations (C Class designates immediately hazardous) - Visible structural issues (slanting floors, doors, water damage and leaks inside and outside of apartments) - Major flooring issues inside apartment (torn vinyl, holes in wooden floor under broken vinyl) - New owner (purchased circa April 2023) has finally (as of October 2024) done some shoddy superficial improvements in hallways (paint already peeling) and did demolition and construction including washer/dryer and dishwasher installs without a permit on the cheap in Apt 1 (in other words gas and electric alterations without a permit that were never inspected, and workers were instructed to refuse inspectors entry during construction and thus did refuse entry) - Many electrical abnormalities - flickering lights etc. - Window, insulation, heating issues in Apts 1 and 2 - Major leaks in hallways and residential units - NYC HPD issued so many C Class violations that were outright ignored by the landlord (including for example lead paint abatement in apartments with children) that the City sent its own contractors to execute repairs and charge the landlord - Etc
Advice to the owners
Be a better person (the bar is low)
Absolutely Avoid due to Owner
Pros
Great location. Court Street is noisy but other than that, and the very shady 359 Court St. next door, it’s a fantastic location.
Cons
• New owner purchased building in 2023 and unlawfully attempted a ~40% rent increase within 30 days - no other option given - despite the legal protections to all of the tenants who at the time had all lived here for 6+ years • No proper written notification of building sale or whereabouts of security deposits • Tenants together secured an attorney who advised registering complaints with the city • complaints were more or less immediately investigated and over 60 violations were initially certified, later jumping to over 200 violations - many of them C Class, aka urgent and dangerous - for a building with only three apartments • Landlord unlawfully retaliated with lease terminations for all tenants • Landlord requested access multiple times to “inspect” only to be a no-show • Tenants include two sets of young parents, three children under the age of six, and a senior citizen (bear this in mind as you read on) • NYC issued multiple lead paint violations for the two apartments with children and the landlord has still done absolutely nothing about it • Two out of three apartments (one with a young mother to a <1 year old undergoing cancer treatment and surgeries) did not have heat until December 21 - almost nine months after the landlord closed on the building. They got heat only after the city had conducted multiple inspections to litigate and obtain a lock-break warrant on the retail space to access the boiler (there is still no boiler access). The third apartment (the one with two kids under 6) didn’t get heat until February 2nd and only because the first court date was approaching and the landlord wanted to look less flagrantly inhumane in court. • When one tenant unintentionally met the landlord, the landlord reprimanded him and the other tenants for making complaints to the city, blamed the tenants for the violations, and told the tenant to go f*ck himself after the tenant explained that his wife, a new mother, had just gone through five months of chemotherapy (without heat) • As the first housing court date approached, the landlord scheduled inspections of each apartment with a contractor to assess violations and schedule repairs. Instead, landlord showed up with the alleged contractor, made no inspections and scheduled no repairs. His approach was to try to cajole tenants into dropping our attorney to deal with him directly because he’s “a reasonable guy” (this is after a year of owning the building). • Meanwhile the landlord had a multiperson crew renovating the retail space for 8+ weeks while ignoring all the residential violations for a year • Mice became a major problem - one tenant has video of a mouse in his sleeping baby’s crib - and the landlord begrudgingly sent an exterminator who did the absolute bare minimum (another violation was issued thereafter) • The only repair the landlord has made: he sent a couple guys to reinstall a kitchen cabinet that suddenly crashed off the wall above one tenant’s stove while that tenant was cooking dinner. The cabinet almost crushed the tenant’s two-year old and left a live wire exposed from the range hood that also fell. Almost a week passed before the landlord had it repaired. • Meanwhile NYC HPD has done the following: abated lead-painted walls, installed window guards, fixed doors, installed a new hallway floor, fixed gaping leaking ceiling holes, and replaced a bathroom floor through which a tenant’s foot plunged because it was in such bad shape • etc etc etc
Advice to the owners
Get a therapist, stop pretending you’re a decent human being or renounce your pathetic ways and maybe become one
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