Six months after Phillip Goldfarb bought three six-story towers in the Bronx, tenants say conditions are deteriorating while rents are rising.
Trash heaps are piling up and rodents are spreading because only one superintendent is responsible for the 168 units on Pelham Parkway North, tenants told the New York Daily News. Residents have filed 182 complaints with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Goldfarb bought the property in January for $52.5 million.
“The neglection of services and harassment of tenants is malicious intent creating emotional distress,” Andrew Goebel, a tenant leader, told the paper.
Goebels said Goldfarb initially raised his rent from $1,250 per month to $1,350 per month. It later jumped to $2,500, the threshold for destabilizing a unit.
State Senator Jeff Klein has come out in support of the tenants.
“Issues such as rent destabilization, tenant harassment and frequent lack of basic services such as heat and hot water are not just troubling, but illegal,” said Klein in a statement quoted by the paper. [NYDN] – Tom DiChristopher
