Legal news for New York premises liability attorney–Landlord neglects apartments in Brooklyn, New York that house rat infestations, leaks, and need ceilings repaired.
Brooklyn, NY (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) – A tenant living in the Flatbush apartments in Brooklyn said that her ceilings have caved in and mold has been growing on her bathroom walls for months announced New York Daily News on October 7, 2009.
Angry tenant Jeannette Gustav had complained to her landlord, Kalman Zimmerman, about her atrocious state of living with no response or promise to fix any of it. The apartment ceiling in the bathroom, the kitchen, and the hallway had literally fallen off. Gustav complained to her landlord and still lives with the mold and decay for a month since the ceiling has fell onto her floors.
Zimmerman has already been noted for 259 offenses against housing code at two different locations that he also owns. The landlord has ignored other tenants’ requests to repair leaks, collapsed ceilings, broken locks, cockroach and rat infestations along with many other issues that tenants are left to deal with alone.
Zimmerman met with the tenant’s weeks ago to address the repairs that so desperately need to be made before winter. Irate tenants have not seen results, or their landlord since that engagement. Homeless people have started to live in the basement, which they had access to because of a gaping tear in the wall. The unlawful tenants are throwing parties and doing drugs, reported tenant 32-year-old Jackie Gardner, who is a mother of 2 young sons. Tenants have expressed concern for their safety and the well being of their children.
The single mother tenant reported that she and her children use the bathroom with towels wrapped around them to shield themselves from the sewage that leaks from the ceiling.
Bedbugs plague other tenants that were forced to sleep outside their bedrooms. Many tenants are growing concerned about winter that is quickly approaching. Tenants reported living with heat and hot water for weeks on end. The Tenant association president Tammy Brake reported that Zimmerman had not made necessary repairs for his owned apartments in two years.
Zimmerman was even reported to have cut off his phone lines so to not be bothered with the tenant’s complaints.
New York City’s Department of housing Preservation and Development has filed a lawsuit against the negligent landlord to force him to repair his properties. Zimmerman has also been fined for the tenants going without heat and hot water during the winter. He has failed to pay the fine.
Bridget Hom
NewYorkInjuryNews.com