Tenants at the Greenpoint Hotel flophouse on Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn are suing their landlord for neglecting building maintenance issues.
The residents claim that the owner, Jay Deutchman, has not undertaken any kind of repairs for more than an year and there are severe hygiene issues and no provision for proper water supply. According to the tenants, the building has been deprived of heating and hot water facilities for the past year. Overflowing sewage, leaking bathrooms and toilets, mold, bugs, roaches and vermin infestation is making life impossible for the residents, reports Brooklyn Paper.
More than 110 people live in the hotel. The hallways stink of sewage and rot. More than half of the rooms and bathrooms don't have doors while the sinks and toilets are in pitiable conditions. Tenants were falling severely ill due to the lack of proper sanitation and the condition has been worsening. No efforts were taken despite repeated complaints, reports AOL Real Estate.
This is not the first time the tenants are suing Deutchman. In 2010, residents had dragged him to court for violating a number of building rules. Documents at the Department of Housing Preservation (HPD) and Development show 514 building rule violations. Currently, the building still has 315 violations, reports New York Daily News.
"HPD has been litigating against this owner for some time. We have had 26 housing court actions between 2006 and present, and the agency spent $8,300 from 2004 - 2012 to perform emergency repairs on the most hazardous violations because the owner did not correct them in a timely manner," a spokesperson for HPD said to DNA Info.
In response to the lawsuit, Deutchman claimed that he had made repairs and done everything in his power to better the conditions. He blamed the tenants for not taking care of the amenities and misusing the facilities.
"I keep knocking violations off and keep handling these matters -- but they keep coming, because the tenants have absolutely no respect for the property. It's a battle that's difficult to win," Deutchman said to AOL Real Estate.
The case will be put before a housing Judge on Tuesday, April 16.
The building was called 'the dirtiest and most dangerous building' of the neighborhood by The New York Times in 2006. Cheap rents have kept the residents from moving out of the building. The single room occupancy charge is just $300 a month, which is the lowest in the whole city.
