Two city departments accused Bronx landlord Ved Parkash of creating illegal apartments and allowing his building to become a breeding ground for rats.
The Department of Buildings said it uncovered eight illegal apartments in the basement of 750 Grand Concourse, the New York Post reported. Three people within a one-block radius of the building has become seriously ill with rare rat-borne disease leptospirosis over the past two months. One of them has since died.
One of the people who caught the disease, Braulio Balbueman Flories, told the Post he lived in one of the illegal basement apartments on Grand Concourse.
“There is a partial vacate of the illegal SROs in the basement of 750 Grand Concourse,” a Department of Buildings spokesperson told the newspaper. The Health Department slapped the landlord with violations for allowing the building to become a breeding ground for rats.
Last year, 38 tenants at 750 Grand Concourse filed lawsuits against Parkash for failing to remedy a plethora of building code violations.
Parkash topped Public Advocate Letitia James’ “worst landlord” list in 2015, having 2,235 violations from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and 134 complaints with Department of Buildings, according to reporting from Crain’s at the time. Parkash owns 7,200 rental units in 11 buildings across the city.
This building is not the only one grappling with a rat problem at the moment. Jared Kushner’s luxury rental building at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg is also allegedly plagued by vermin. [NYP] — Miriam Hall