Brooklyn, NY – On Wednesday, NY state reps served Brooklyn landlord JBI Management with a subpoena amid charges that the company is purposely sending in crews to trash the apartments of rent-regulated tenants in order to force them out.
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NYDAILYNEWS.com (http://nydn.us/1tGqK7x) reports that the subpoena was served on JBI’s principle owners, brothers Joel and Aaron Israel, by the state’s Tenant Protection Unit after tenants complained that JBI crews, under the guise of performing “home repairs,” used sledgehammers to render kitchens and bathrooms inoperable dating back to June 2013.
The Israel brothers, operating as JBI, own 10 residential buildings in Brooklyn neighborhoods that are currently undergoing gentrification.
Gov. Cuomo said, “It is not only unconscionable, but it is flat-out illegal for any landlord to subject families to living without running water or a functioning bathroom or kitchen.”
While a resolution is pending, the state Office of Rent Administration has lowered the rents for tenants involved to $1 per month until the matter is settled.
JBI’s attorney, Glenn Spiegel, denied the charges, saying, “JBI Management restores old buildings and provides good housing for Brooklyn families.”
Knowing the situation, the allegations are false, and the conditions were created by the tenants themselves for the PR stunt.
Even if a real estate speculator has to follow the laws. The landlord(s) bought a building for an overinflated price and don’t want to wait 15+ years to see a profit.
Although that I am a tenant not a landlord, I think that the rent control law is unheard of and as bad as what those brothers did. Rent Control is crystal clear part of the communist legend. It is clearly unfair and is highway robbery to have a tenant live in an apartment for $300 rent when the cost of water and heat for this apartment is more than that, and the market price of the apartment is $1200. Instead of siding with these suckers who live for free and in return call 311 every day to complain and make sure that if there is an extra few dollars left over the year it should go out for violations, the Tenant Protection Unit should side with those tenants who pay $2500 for apartments + heat + maintenance, and don’t even get the minimum a landlord should give.
What about my frum (or supposedly frum) landlord who didn’t take care of infestation problems? Or didn’t do repairs he promised would get done when we moved in?
But if we didn’t pay our rent, whoa be us!
I hope they go bankrupt. We need to stop tolerating scum in our community’s
Good. It’s about time someone stepped in.
I read the original article. No where did it say that the owners are Jewish.
The both the original article and this one only show one side, not the other. How much did oil for heat go up? How much did insurance go up? What damage do some section 8 tenants do to destroy the apartment? I don’t know the answer and neither do you.
To compare them to a. l’havdil Rubashkin is not helping the landlords at all.
Will someone with some brains explain me, why do we have a privileged class, an Holy class of tenants who don’t have to submit to means test (income eligibility verification ).
And most Democratic Politicians cater to these evil Sodomniks.
Maybe a brave journalist (lol) will ask this arrogant sfatchim Governor, WHY do the millions of tenants not deserve the same deal.
Why does everyone have to pay 30% or more for lodging and these no good troublemakers get to pay like maybe 5% of their income as rent.
IS THERE ANY ONE OUT THERE WHO CAN GET AN ANSWER FROM HIS HONOR IN ALBANY?
UNIONS AND RENT CONTROL TENANTS AND DEMOCRATS A CORRUPT SELFISH GANG.
Whoever knows the inside-out of the housing rent control system knows that this whole thing is a by-product of the rotten and unfair housing laws, a tanent if he has a little know-how, (with the help of the housing associations) can bleed a landlord to bankrupcy, I’m not commenting on this perticular case, but the scale is abselutley not balanced.
And all those people writing negetive comments have no idea how the real estate business works, I for one, being in real estate, am ready to give those brothers the benefit of the doubt without knowing them.
Those tanents right groups are like the unions destroying the fair and balanced market, if rent stabalized laws would have been fair, then the prices for fair market apartments (which are sky-high, to rent or to buy) would have been balanced.
What about my former “frum” landlord who absolutely refused to make any repairs to the leaking pipes from upstairs on my rental until the ceiling literally fall down causing a lot of damage.
The pipes were “patched” but kept popping surprise leaks. In a few months, it happened 5 times. Every time I filed a claim – until they finally canceled my policy. I was blacklisted and couldn’t get insurance. The next leak was the BIG ONE, and I had NO coverage.
So I stopped paying rent because the landlord wouldn’t accept responsibility. He even had the chutzpah to say that it was MY fault. He then started eviction proceedings against me. In court he lied that I caused the damage. Right, cause I stood there with a garden hose and watered the ceiling…the outcome is irrelevant – let’s just say that he didn’t win but I still lost out.
Bottom line, I not surprised by anything I read about landlords. There’s no shortage of slumlords and when it’s a frum person, the chilul it creates is unimaginable.
do not cry about the landlords not making money because of rent control or rent stabilization. when they bought the building they fully knew that x amount of tenants where rent control or rent stabilized. If they payed to much for the building or mortgaged out the building it is not the tenant fault but the landlord.
When you buy a business you buy the contracts and must take that into account how much to pay.
I was a real estate manger many years ago. And I can say I have met many really bad tenants and really bad landlords. But when there is a group of tenants not just one or two or tree then in most cases you are dealing with a bad landlord
these low income tenants sit home all day and destroy their apts- im doing this for 18 yrs the $1800 tenants are out working their apts r in perfect order !!enough with this garbage HERES 1 eg. for you they bring washing machines in their kitchens b/c they cant be bothered going to the laundromat and just damage the apts underneath and their own kitchen floor -when the water pours all over their floor and the apts below get flooded AND THEN ‘ THEY’ CALL 311 here’s another for you they add walls turning their $650 1 bed room apt in to 2 bed room and sit their for 10 years with 3 generations living there clothing pilled up to the ceiling