By Anna Gustafson
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday he plans to sue Vantage Properties, which owns more than 80 buildings in Queens, to stop it from harassing rent-regulated tenants and forcing them from their homes in order to rent the apartments to individuals who could pay for more expensive, market-price units, he said.
Cuomo said in a statement the company, which has its Queens base in Long Island City, aggressively pressured long-term residents to move out of their homes by serving “baseless legal notices and commencing frivolous Housing Court eviction proceedings.”
Vantage spokesman Davidson Goldin defended the company in a statement.
“Vantage is genuinely committed to serving its residents and to the future of affordable housing in New York City,” Goldin said. “We look forward to demonstrating this to the attorney general.”
The attorney general said in a Jan. 28 letter to Vantage Properties President Neil Rubler that he would file a lawsuit in five days unless the company could convince the state otherwise.
“Vantage’s deceptive and harassing practices at issue have harmed and will continue to harm all New York City residents by displacing long-time tenants from their homes, accelerating the loss of affordable housing, and destabilizing community,” Cuomo said in the letter to Rubler.
The company owns and operates nearly 10,000 apartment units, many of which are rent-regulated, in about 150 buildings throughout the city. It acquired many of its 80 Queens buildings in such areas as Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, and Woodside from notorious landlord Nicholas Haros in 2008.
Residents in the buildings have long complained of systemic abuse from Vantage, including frivolous lawsuits and ignoring such maintenance concerns as broken elevators and little or no heat in the winter.
“Landlords who illegally harass tenants to boost their bottom line do great harm to the fabric of this city,” Cuomo said. “Their underhanded tactics displace long-time residents from their homes and exacerbate the acute affordable housing shortage.”
After Vantage would purchase a building, the company would attempt to evict tenants by falsely claiming the unit was not the primary residence of the individual or that they had failed to pay rent, Cuomo said.
Queens residents have often staged protests against Vantage, and tenants have formed a union representing more than 1,300 borough residents.
Kew Gardens resident Kourosh Nassimian, a member of the union, said Vantage routinely did not cash his rent checks and then claimed he had not paid them. Another Kew Gardens resident, Kevin Jamison, has said there are major problems with heat and hot water in his building.
“It’s hard to list all the problems because there are so many,” Jamison said in a previous interview.
A number of elected officials and housing advocates expressed their support for Cuomo’s intent to sue Vantage, including state Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights).
“Vantage Properties has unjustly profited by causing great personal costs for their tenants and for our communities,” Peralta said. “The people who are victims of their schemes did not just lose their apartments, they lost their homes.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.
