The Real Deal New York

Tenants at a deteriorating, 16-unit Ditmas Park apartment building are taking their landlord to court over cracks in their walls, water damage on their ceilings and other necessary repairs that they say have been repeatedly ignored. The building’s address was not identified. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has already billed the owner, East 22 Realty, for more than $17,000 in emergency repairs that the agency made at the company’s neglected properties since 2001. Last August, HPD filed a suit against the company, which had been hit 172 building code violations, leading the company to agree in January to pay fines and make repairs. The deadline for those repairs has passed, and tenants reportedly have not seen any upgrades — except to vacant apartments that the owner is hoping to rent out. Tenants are now going back to court to try to force the repairs, according to NY1. East 22 could be forced to pay as much as $125 per day for each violation. [NY1]