Brooklyn landlord allegedly used Hurricane Sandy damage to evict tenants

Ales Realty, the landlord of a Boerum Hill brownstone at 122 Bergen Street, allegedly used Hurricane Sandy damage as an excuse to evict tenants, according to a lawsuit filed by residents, reported by DNAinfo.

Problems allegedly stemmed from a fallen tree that damaged the building’s fire escape, and prompted a Department of Buildings violation on Nov. 1 calling for its immediate repair. Four tenants of the building claimed that, due to the violations, Ales Realty ordered them to pack up their belongings and hand over their keys within 10 days.

Three of the tenants live in rent-stabilized units. In the lawsuit, the tenants asked for a court order barring Ales Realty from evicting them, claiming that the evictions would make them “blacklisted by future landlords.”

However, Ales Realty head Abdul Eltaieb told DNAinfo that no eviction proceedings against the tenants have begun. “We told them we don’t want to evict you,” he said. “We just told them not to sleep in the apartment.”

Eltaieb said the fire escape took three days to remove and that he is waiting for the DOB to sign off on his application to make necessary repairs. “We are losing rent,” Eltaieb told DNAinfo, “but we are lucky no one was hurt.”

The tenants’ lawyer and one of the tenants did not return DNAinfo’s requests for comment. [DNAinfo] — Zachary Kussin