New York – A Brooklyn landlord accused of intentionally trashing his own properties in an attempt to force tenants to relocate will be the subject of a press conference this afternoon being held by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.
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Thompson will announce charges being leveled against both Joel Israel and his brother Amrom Israel. Both brothers were arrested this morning and are expected to be arraigned this morning.
In the past 12 months WCBS News had numerous reports of alleged self-inflicted destruction by Israel at several buildings. City records showed that Israel’s 10 buildings in Brooklyn had amassed 482 housing code violations as of March 2014, with 98 Linden Street racking up 85 of those violations.
According to reports, Israel intentionally demolished the kitchen and bathroom in one Linden Street unit in late 2013, allegedly without a permit. While Israel told a court that tenants refused to give him access to the apartment to perform the necessary repairs, an attorney for tenant Noelia Calero charged Israel with lying, saying her landlord intentionally gutted her bathroom and kitchen as part of a larger plan to force her out, renovate the apartment and charge higher rents. The city issued a partial vacate order on the apartment, allowing Calero use of her bedrooms, but preventing her from accessing her kitchen or bathroom.
Governor Cuomo’s Tenant Protection Unit launched an investigation into Israel’s JBI Management last April amid allegations of harassment and illegal eviction of tenants. This past February a housing court judge ordered Israel to make repairs at one building which had been deemed uninhabitable over a year ago.
It was hurtful to read this article. I’ve known the Israel brothers for several years now. They own dozens of buildings throughout NYC. They have a simple business model. They buy dilapidated properties, fix them up and hold onto them. Boarded up homes and crack houses are brought back to life and housing is created by their hard work and business model. They create live able housing solutions and have been model landlords for years.
The city of New York on the other hand has been inefficiently running projects were numerous residents died over the years due to neglect in elevator related accidents and other accidents. The condition in city housing is horrendous. Many people in city housing projects live in horrendous inhabitable conditions. They wait years for hazardous conditions such as black mold and lack of heat and hot water to be addressed.
Instead of Deblasio and Thompson focusing on bringing some accountability and efficiency where it’s needed, they hang these 2 young Jews out there and bring big TV crews and journalists to show how strong they are on fighting for tenants and holding landlords accountable… If the City truly cares about tenants living conditions they need to look no further than in their own projects and housing complexes.
For someone buying dilapidated properties, 485 violations is not a lot. It takes time to remove them and the Israel’s have a good track record of removing them. For several years now, they’ve been painted in the media as slumlords for this same property.. Over and over and over again. Out of the dozens of properties they own its this same story we keep on hearing.. Could it be the tenants are out to get him? Is that not a possibility?
I believe the charges, throw the book at them.
they need good lawyers and prove what #1 is writing about,because the city is always marching out for the press more cases like this
Same (phony) story. The tenants are saints, the landlord is the devil and the city is the savior. Ridiculous. I know I’ve been there and many people I know in the property rental business know this.
Barry, thanks for your interpretation, but people here can read and think.
Barry. I am with u on this one.
The problem they face is that the city decideded to hang them.
I don’t believe the allegations, seems much more likely that the tenants want to get out of paying rent and the city is siding with the tenants because they are not white and “underprivileged.”
But if the allegations are at least partially true, the main culprit is rent control, not the landlords. Tenants who stay in their apartments for a number of years end up paying rents so ridiculously low that the landlords can only operate their properties at a loss. So the temptation to rotate tenants is very strong.
But the worst consequence of rent control is that, by creating severe shortages in available rental properties, it inevitably leads to very expensive rents. It’s not just anecdotal observation that cities with rent control laws have sky high rents and it is very difficult to find an apartment in them, whereas in cities with free market on rentals there are always available apartments and the rent prices are reasonable. It is also the result of several exhausting studies.
So if you are interested in moral pontification, go ahead and pour your rage over unethical landlords. But if you are interested in fixing the problem, GET RID OF RENT CONTROL.
tenants will do ANYTHING to lodge complaints against landlords so the city can lower their rent without cause………..
Hi I personally know the Israel brothers back in the old good days we learned in Yeshiva Nezer Hatoire (Jerusalem) I can only say amazing good things about those boys their personality speaks itself ,later moved to NY lived on same block from their wonderful parents, always seeing them as tremendous ,chesed ,friendly home To all the smart Business people who understand the Value of developing and to establishing strategy in repeating income producing model, will also understand the little risk and downside to be caught up especially if you bump into the wrong worker,or government agent,tennet lots of jealousy out there when you have great success ,without knowing all facts we can not judge by the cover but im sure that they running a legal operation and doing the right thing i wish them lots of success nothing serious will be happening to them other than a small scratch in left pocket for some lawyer fees… just media and more stupid people will enjoy the hot air and nonsense, for a while , To all others go get job and mind you’re own business Ari T
As the Rebbe said, let the truth come out.