HORROR HOUSE

It was a neighborhood’s worst nightmare, but no longer.
After three years, neighbors say, of alleged noise, drunkenness, squalor and brawling, the house at 95-48 114th Street in Richmond Hill is officially padlocked – and the people inside, who officials claim were squatters, have been evicted.
According to the Department of Buildings (DOB), the home’s owner is registered as Kulwant Singh, and his current address is listed at the property.
However, neighbors who spoke to The Courier on the condition of anonymity said that Singh is no longer in the country, and paperwork obtained by The Courier shows that the house does, indeed, have a second mortgage.
Area residents further claim that one group of the home’s inhabitants moved out about three years ago, and that’s when the current residents moved in – and the trouble started.
“[The previous inhabitants] used to keep the place clean,” said a neighbor. “I have small kids and they can’t even play outside now.”
She also claims that she has seen large rats and roaches on her own property, which she believes are coming from the home.
The police have been to the location numerous times, say residents, but the trouble would continue regardless.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Finance (DOF), all taxes have been paid, but a lien was sold against the property in May of this year for $5,743.17 – three years of water and sewer charges in arrears.
After numerous letters, complaints and calls to 3-1-1, the Department of Buildings (DOB) inspected the home on March 17 and performed extermination for rats and bugs eight days later. They also paid a visit earlier this month.
Last year, according to DOB records, inspectors tried to gain access – twice – in order to check the property as a possible illegal conversion. Both times DOB employees were denied.
Finally, on Wednesday, July 8 – much to the neighbors’ gratitude – in a joint effort by the NYPD’s 102nd Precinct, DOB’s Quality of Life Unit and FDNY – and with the help of City Councilmember Eric Ulrich – officials got into the largely windowless two-story, two-family home, and saw exactly what was going on inside and out.
In the large backyard were mounds of what appeared to be construction materials, mattresses, chairs, sofas and other furniture, doors and even the slats from what used to be a white fence.
In the front yard was a black leather sofa – repaired with what looked like duct tape – and more garbage.
A propane tank hooked up to a burner lay in the middle of a bedroom on the first floor; in another room was a red gas can lying on its side next to a space heater.
Clothes were strewn about, rotting food sat on stovetops, while hot plates sat on nearby counters.
There was even a hookah, and in each room sat a whole potato on a plate, with incense inserted. Dead roaches sat on the plates as well.
Various insects crawled and/or flew about, and the stench was at times overpowering, even for inspectors.
Numerous walls, a ceiling and what used to be a television had large gaping holes.
On one wall was a KeySpan notice informing those living in the home that the meter would be removed.
In the basement, where the musty odor permeated the air, the furniture and even the walls, wires hung loose from ceilings to floor and power strips were overloaded.
In a separate room, where the boiler was located, sat piles of trash – polishing compound, a shoe, an empty pizza box, even a birdcage.
The third floor was not nearly as dirty, but the stench seemed worse.
In total, it took DOB inspectors more than two hours to go through the house, where they found four apartments with seven single occupancy units.
“The Buildings inspector determined there were safety issues . . . putting tenants at risk,” said a DOB spokesperson, who also noted the house had no sprinklers and no second means of egress.
In total, three violations were issued to the home’s owner: working without a permit, failure to maintain exterior walls and altering the building to occupancy contrary to DOB records.
The residents, three of whom were home at the time, were allowed to gather their belongings and were told to make other living arrangements, as a full vacate order was issued and the doors were shuttered. A police source said that if need be, shelters would have been provided.
He also said that anyone caught on the property would be taken into custody.
Grateful neighbors watched as their ongoing nightmare ended.
“Finally something was done about it, it’s a relief,” said one woman who said that she often felt unsafe in the neighborhood. “It helps me to have faith [in the system] again.”