NYC wins historic penalty against landlords in The Bronx
It’s the largest penalty ever won by HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development) against Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers.
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New York City has won a historic $31 million penalty against property owners in The Bronx.
It’s the largest penalty ever won by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) against Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers.
The city also won the appointment of a Chief Restructuring Officer to ensure repairs are made as part of the court judgment. Roughly $900,000 from the owner's bank accounts will be frozen and redirected to urgent repairs deemed to be the most hazardous.
The city is also working with the mortgage holder, who has initiated a foreclosure on the property, to find a preservation buyer.
"These funds come directly from the landlord’s accounts. Money that should have otherwise been allocated to work on this work long ago. And we will not only make the urgent repairs that are needed today," the mayor said.
According to the mayor, tenants living at these properties have suffered from their landlord’s neglect. Complaints have been filed for elevator outages, lack of heat and hot water, vermin infestation and other violations.
The property owners, Karan Singh and Rajmattie Persaud, are on the Public Advocate’s Worst Landlords List.
The buildings were originally constructed as middle-income housing and marketed as luxury living. They have flipped over ownership several times and left more than 500 apartments to fall into disrepair. According to HPD open data, the properties have racked up more than 4,000 complaints and over 1,700 housing code violations over the last two years.
"I am elated because we have worked so hard legally for three and a half years, seven to eight years outside of the courts. This is a big step for us," said Charlene Banks, a tenant organizer who has lived at Robert Fulton Terrace for 25 years.
For Dina Levy, the city's HPD commissioner, the judgment is personal. Levy worked to organize tenants nearly 20 years ago.
“This is a story I know well. I organized tenants here back in 2009, when they were first coming out of Mitchell-Lama. Since then, tenants have been subject to decades of mistreatment, but that comes to an end today: Thanks to aggressive litigation by HPD’s Anti-Harassment Unit, we now have a record $31m judgement against the owners. That gives us leverage in bankruptcy proceedings, which we’ll use to deliver better outcomes for residents," said Dina Levy, HPD Commissioner.
Some tenants feel they deserve payback for the out-of-pocket expenses they have incurred to make their own repairs over the years.
"When are they going to invest money into the people who already invest a lot of money in this? I had to buy heaters, refrigerators, stoves. I had to buy all that stuff, I had to fix that whole apartment up, the floors are no good," said Smitty, who has lived in the building for three years.
An exact deadline on when repairs need to be made by was not clear, but Charlene Banks says she will be following up in the next three to six months if progress fails.
