Here is a valid complaint.
Building located at 2123 Second Avenue NYC 10029 was recently sold. This building is located in East Harlem. It is a 3 Story building with only 3 apartments and one commercial store. The new owners wasted no time evicting 2 of the three Tenants/Family. Since no leases were ever issued and 2 of the three Tenants/Family moved in after the rent stabilization expired those two tenants had to vacate. Yes, from what I understand the owners very graciously offered the tenants 6 months free rent and gave them $10,000.00 each to leave. It might sound like a lot of money, but consider this....the two Tenants/Families that were evicted were senior citizens with no real income. Now although my heart goes out to them, since the Tenants/Family did not have a lease, by law the owner can tell the Tenants/Family that after a certain period of time they must vacate. The building owners have a right to enjoy their new building. I wonder though how easy or for that matter how hard is it for the new Owners to sleep at night considering the age of the Tenants/Family. So far the Owners actions are not illegal, just in my opinion immoral. Now for the remaining Tenants/Family
The last Tenant/Family have been in their apartment before rent control expired. (To qualify for rent control, a tenant must have been living continuously in an apartment since July 1, 1971) Now, everyone should be aware that if you are a rent controlled tenant, you have NO lease. So how does this Tenant/Family prove to a judge that they have lived there prior to the expiration date? That is the fight going on right now with the Owners of 2123 Second Avenue and the last Tenant/Family.
However that is not the only problem. The Owners took the Tenant/Family to court, and after a couple of months ceased to pursue eviction until "a later date" . Wonder why the Owners did that? During the time when the case was going to be seen by the judge, it came to light that certain paperwork from city agencies dating prior to the rent control expiration was in the possession of the Tenant/Family, in addition to other items. The Owners were probably advised by their attorney that if he pursued this the Owners might lose the case and therefore the Tenant/Family would be protected and recorded as RENT CONTROL. So the Owners, must have felt it was better to keep the Tenant/Family in limbo. (If the Tenant/Family is not protected with rent control or rent stabilization the Owner can increase the rent to whatever he or she wants)
So now what happens is Landlord Textbook......Harass the Tenant/Family till they get tired and move out. Unfortunately or in this case Fortunately what the Owners did not anticipate, is that the Tenant/Family's daughter is a NYS Licensed Real Estate Broker who has been practicing for almost 2 decades and has been advising her family on what to do. Her experience as a property manager also came in handy.
When the owners locked the backyard, she advised her parents to call the Department of Buildings because that is a violation since the fire escapes are in the rear of the building. When the Owners built an extension from the commercial store to encase the entire backyard, she told her parents to call 311 again since the owners are now taking away the only exit from the fire escape drop. She looked up the permit and found that both the owners and the architects falsified paperwork to obtain a permit. You might question how she knows this since she is not a architect, she asked her architect friends to help, they said it looked legit. But, and I love this But..... after going over the permit one last time in an effort to help her family, she found what she needed to have a stop work order issued. They lied on the application for the permit. They stated on the permit application that the building was a corner lot. It is not a corner lot. But that did not stop the contractors from working on the building, they roll down the gate and inside the door where nobody can see, they have the expired permits and even the first permit that allowed construction to proceed. What they do not have is the STOP WORK ORDER posted. Oh and the department of building need to step up their game. The department of buildings get calls to inform them that illegal work is being done in the building, so what does that agency do? They send an inspector at 8:00 PM. What good is that?
Now, in addition to having work done illegally in the building, dust has been accumulating in the building. Dust settles on the Marble steps, and guess what, my mother, who has problems walking falls down a few stairs. She called the Owner to inform her yet again that the building needs to be cleaned because of the dust and because she fell. The Owner wife has the nerve to tell my mother that she could not have fallen, but not 1 hour later the Owner herself was in the building moping up the mess of dust. Water and Electricity are being turned off at the random hours while the contractors work. The noise level is louder than the Icecream trucks that the Mayor of this city does not want to hear. But it's East Harlem, so it really doesn't matter does it?
This is what happens in East Harlem NYC. Our representatives really don't represent us if they allow building owners and city agencies to turn there back on us.
By the way, Thumbs up!!!!!!I have to give credit to one inspector that works for the Department of Buildings, My father did not get a name, but he said the inspector was a nice Irish man who did not let the contractors intimidate him. He was the person who issued the stop work order and his Issuing Inspector ID 2448 (FAILURE TO PROVIDE UNOBSTRUCTED EXIT PASSAGEWAY: NOTE: HORIZONTALLY ENLARGE COMMERCIAL 1ST FLR SPACE HAS CUT (OBSTRUCTED) REAR FIRE ESCAPE FROM PROPER EGRESS TO REAR YARD (FIRE ESCAPE TERMINATES AT ROOF OF 1ST) Section of Law 27-369,BC 1020.2 This HONEST MAN is what we need more of.
Thumbs down to Scott Stringer the Manhattan Borough President for not helping out at all. We called his office and was told there was nothing he could help with. I guess we have to be homeless for Mr. Stringer to write a few sentences on his web site about us. It also seems that Mr. Scott Stringer on his housing tab lists the current conditions of the housing market but does not give any ideas or anything specific on how to improve it. (what he should type as a title is.....I'm just typing this for informational purposes, it's up to Manhattan to figure out the rest).
