Inside a $1,300 per month apartment owned by the city’s worst landlord: VIDEO

Tenants of the city’s worst landlord constantly face rats, cockroaches, water-damaged ceilings and holes in the walls and floors of their $1,300 per month apartments. NBC found these conditions when it paid a visit to three Mount Eden buildings owned by College Management, which Public Advocate Bill De Blasio recently named the worst landlord in the city (see video above).

The buildings contain 724 violations, including 82 of the Class C variety that represent immediate danger.”These are health and safety violations of a very serious nature,” De Blasio said.

Tenants told NBC that the building used to be a “pleasure” to live in. Public records show the current ownership took over the three 21-unit buildings at 1259, 1265 and 1269 College Avenue, near 169th Street, for $3.6 million in 2007. Since then conditions have worsened: one tenant has had to use the bathroom with an umbrella to stay dry from water dripping from the ceiling.

Now, tenants are taking College Management, headed by Eli Abbott, to Bronx Housing Court in hopes that it will lead to building improvements. According to the New York Daily News, the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation has spent $25,000 on emergency repairs at the building. Abbott has repaid most of that and has settled two suits brought by the agency for a total of $8,200.