As New York City temperatures plunge below freezing, the number of complaints from tenants bedeviled by poorly-heated apartments has nearly doubled from last year.
On Tuesday alone, 2,900 complaints were logged before 3:30 p.m., the New York Times reported. The chilly temperatures and lack of heating are driving some tenants to use their ovens, space heaters and even hair dryers to manage the chill, they told the Times.
“I have to put gloves on my daughter because I can’t keep her hands under the covers,” Christine Ortega, a resident of 930 Prospect Place in Crown Heights, told the Times.
Residents of 930 and 940 Prospect Place have sued landlord Seth Miller’s Aegis Realty Management Company for allegedly failing to provide adequate heat and water. The case is to be heard in court next week.
The owner bought the buildings out of foreclosure in 2012, according to the Times, and has since allegedly tried to evict tenants by challenging their leases and refusing to accept payments in hopes of landing higher-paying homeseekers.
When the Times reached Miller at his Midtown office Tuesday, he said “no comment” and hung up the phone. [NYT] — Julie Strickland