wednesday, august 27th

where's the door knob?

New Super?

When you come in the front door look up immediately. Is that sign new? Is this really the right place to post the supers info? Is it where it should be legally?

please proceed

For those who are new or relatively new to the building, ask anyone who has lived here 10 or more years and they will tell you that the building has never been dirtier or been more poorly maintained since Galron Realty began to manage it. For example:

#1: The halls are never adequately cleaned and haven't been painted properly in years. The result is chipping and mold that present health hazards to us all -- the poor and sometimes unhealthy air quality is exacerbated by the construction in three apartments on the 3rd and 6th floors.

#2: The garbage room is also a dreadful mess. Over the summer a rat infestation took hold.

#3: There is no super for the building. Has anyone seen any official announcement since Angel left the position? There was a new guy briefly, but I've been told he's now gone.

#4: The water pressure is hit or miss. In winter there is usually one or two days a week where there is no hot water.

#5 The tiling and grouting around the floor and fixtures in almost all apartments should have been replaced long ago because they breed mold and damage that only make it worse over time the longer it is untreated.

The attitude and behavior of the management company is outrageous, and may be illegal.
If you're like me you're busy with a zillion other aspects of life and dealing with a negligent landlord is not at the top of the list of things-to-do, but we have crossed a line in the past few months where this is no longer becoming just a nuisance, the conditions have become hazardous.

There is easily 1/3 of the building willing to attest to problems.
Whoever knows the legalities, please proceed.

Everyone should report the absence of superintendent to 311

We need this fact documented with the city. I know that it is tedious to make these calls but it is absolutely necessary!

Banding together

This is from http://nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/housing/pdfs/tenantsguide.pdf, "A TENANT’S GUIDE TO THE NEW YORK CITY HOUSING COURT", pages 19 and 20. Is this somethiong we should do? The chapter it is in, Chapter 6, "HOW TO HANDLE HOUSING REPAIR PROBLEMS" also seems helpful in general:

"7A Proceeding: If your building has serious problems, such as frequent lack of heat and hot water or lack of basic maintenance or services, and not just problems in one apartment, or if your landlord is harassing you, you should consider getting together with other tenants and bringing a 7A Proceeding. In a 7A Proceeding, the tenants in a building ask the court to remove the landlord as active manager of the building and appoint an administrator who is supervised by the Court and who will collect the rent monies and use them to make repairs and to put the building back in shape. The landlord keeps legal ownership, but no longer has the power to operate the building. If the 7A administrator succeeds in repairing the building, the court can give control of the building back to the landlord.

At least one-third of all the tenants in the building must agree to bring a 7A Proceeding. Often, a tenants' association can help in getting enough tenants together to bring a 7A Proceeding. You and the other tenants in your building may be able to get information from the Resource Center in Housing Court, the HPD Tenant Assistance Unit or other organizations listed in Section 7B, “Where Can I Go for Help” (p. 20)."

208 East 7th Street has the same management but...

208 East 7th Street has the same Vanderleigh Properties management but under a yet different name; Chondro Realty LLC at 66 Marbledale Road, Tuckahoe NY 10707. Their name for 413/415 E 70th Street is Borg Realty. At 507 East 73rd Street they call themselves Praxis Realty. Their tenants are experiencing a host of similar issues.  We will try to be in touch with them.

As for our building today the trash is blocking the back door basement entrance. Serious fire hazard again! Water bugs litter the hallway. The front door handle is broken again. The lock is jammed so everyone can enter the building. We got used to this!

story of #7

The new tenants moved to apartment #7.  They were not aware why two consecutive previous occupants moved out.  How would they? The tenants before the last left the apartment because they were burglarized (their computers were stolen) and they were not feeling safe in the apartment. It is very easy to enter this apartment through the windows, both from the fire escape and from the roof of the wooden shack built as an extension to the apartment below #7.  There are no gates on the windows and their window locks are broken.  The last tenants of #7 just could not stand hearing the rats in the walls.  According to the new tenant their rent is $2,750! Welcome to 114 East 1st Street!

Further decline of the building

The hallway has not been cleaned in weeks.  Cobwebs are growing on the staircase and the entire building smells like excrement.  The front door look rarely works.  The management is renovating some apartments while we are living in a dump.  We should act together before living here becomes unbearable.

I heard today that if we have a group of ten tenants with similar complaints we can have a city manager assigned for the building.  That would help a lot.  Does anyone know more about it?

Below are a couple of images of the decaying basement door entrance of the building where the garbage is being stored.  It is dangerous to step on it so avoid it!

This blog is for the tenants of 114 East 1st Street

Please begin to post all your problems here. You can remain anonymous.

Below is a list of some of my issues. I need to mention here that it is a fourth management company since I moved to this building and the level of neglect has reached a new phase. I called the management office numerous times to no result. I left many detailed messages (indicating the problems) with the receptionist. When I try to talk to the person in charge, the man who introduces himself as Skip Moses picks up the phone and begins to yell at me, thus preventing me from telling him what I am calling about. I gather that it is a proven intimidation and deterrence technique. Recently, I talked to many of the tenants and they are all alarmed about the general condition of the building. Some of them already moved out. The new renters are unaware that once they sign the lease they won't be able to get any non-emergency repairs.

1. The entire electric wiring (all the sockets and outlets) of my apartment is all on an one 20 amp fuse (the fuse box has six fuse sockets).  I cannot use air conditioner and electric kettle at once because it blows the fuse.  I suspect that this is a fire hazard.

2. For over two years I've been trying to get my sink faucet repaired. It leaks hot water which is a massive energy and water waste.

3. Most of my windows have broken springs which make opening and closing them very difficult.

4. The hallway of the building is just filthy beyond words. The walls haven't been painted in years. Some of the hallway walls are rotting from ongoing leaks.

5. The garbage area is on the basement entrance stairway, which leads to the boilers, water valves and main fuses, (again a potential fire hazard) and often overflows with debris not to mention the constant rat infestation.

6. The front door to the building is rarely functional (the door jams on the deformed floor surface or the lock is falling apart).

7. After a massive leak from the upstairs apartment and a partial ceiling collapse a couple of years ago, a repair that was performed (only after several weeks of requsting it and the city inspection on record) left me with with an uneven bulging wall and ceiling. I finished the repairs myself fearing the hostility and a mess that was made during the partial, inadequate repair. Soon the leak returned and mushrooms sprouted on my ceiling. This time the ceiling didn't fall down and repaired it myself.

8. We scarcely had any heat this spring. The city's building department has a record of this.

9. Water pressure is inadequate. Taking a shower is a constant struggle with hot or cold water.  I am only on the third floor.  I know that the higher floors have much greater issues with this.

10. For a several of months now we have no superintendent in the building.  This is illegal for 30 units building!