A new watch list by the city’s Public Advocate’s Office exposes the landlords behind some of the city’s most dangerous and dilapidated buildings, including those in Queens.
“The city’s worst landlords can no longer hide from responsibility while their buildings fall into dangerous disrepair,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
The Public Advocate’s “NYC’s Worst Landlords Watch List” was unveiled online on Monday, August 30 to allow tenants to look up a current or potential landlord by name and see housing code violations for other buildings the landlord owns. Currently, the list has 164 buildings owned by 155 landlords. More than 4,500 tenants living in these buildings.
The violations filed by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) include lack of heat or hot water, lead paint, toxic mold, broken pipes and severe damage to the walls, ceilings or floors. The Public Advocate launched the searchable database to raise public awareness and encourage landlords to quickly address safety problems in their buildings. A spokesperson for the Public Advocate’s office said they support a legislation that would change how violations against landlords are enforced and attach a penalty to violations.
Most of the buildings on the watch list are in the Bronx and Brooklyn. Queens only has five buildings on the list. They are:
?106-19 177th Street in Jamaica owned by Diana Alleyne with 98 violations, ? 195-25 Woodhull Avenue in Hollis owned by Chinyere Okigwe with 74 violations,
? 1885 Woodbine Street in Ridgewood owned by Valentin Kostov with 54 violations,
? 211-34 45th Road in Bayside owned by Loretta Thomas with 36 violations, and ? 94-41 86th Road in Woodhaven owned by Sandra Vargas with 11 violations.
A spokesperson for the Public Advocate said one of the reasons that Queens might have fewer units on the list is that Queens has more one-and-two family houses, fewer apartment buildings and less old units compared to the other boroughs.
“I suspect we’ll see more Queens buildings added to the Watch List in the coming weeks,” de Blasio said. “But our goal is to work with tenants, landlords and HPD get these buildings repaired and off the list as soon as possible.”
Both, 106-19 177th Street and 195-25 Woodhull Avenue, are in HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP), which means HPD has already identified them as some of the worst in the city, an HPD spokesman said. This program gives HPD the ability to order emergency repairs and charge the landlord or place a lien against the property.
The now vacant 2-story building with 4 units at 106-19 177th Street has already accrued $80,665 in emergency repair charges. The 3-story building with 3 units at 195-25 Woodhull Avenue has also accumulated more than $18,366 in charges.
“It’s a shame because a corner house needs to be kept up,” said Nina Davis, 75, who lives near 106-19 177th Street. “Our area really has gone down. There are many vacant houses.”
Louise Seeley, executive director of Housing Court Answers, a service of The City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, Inc., said tenants should complain to their landlord about any deteriorating conditions in writing and send the letter through certified mail. If that doesn’t work, tenants should call 3-1-1 to complain and have an HPD inspector come out to see the violations.
“Tenants really need to be persistent,” Seeley said.
The final step would be to take their complaints to the Queens Housing Court at 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens, and file a Housing Part (HP) Action for the Court to order the landlord to provide services and make repairs. Seeley recommended that before going to court to walk through the entire unit and write down everything that is wrong in order to include it in the lawsuit. She also said tenants need to make sure that they are suing the right property owner and manager.
“It is better to name everyone who you think is responsible,” Seeley said.
For more information on the Public Advocate’s watch list or how to add a new landlord to the list, please visit: www.advocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist.
