Fordham tenants sue landlord, seek court control of neglected apartment building
She has been unable to return to her apartment since the April fire, which started in a top-floor unit and caused extensive water damage to her home.
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Residents of a Fordham apartment building are taking their landlord to New York City Housing Court, alleging years of neglect and seeking the appointment of a court administrator to oversee the property after an April fire left some tenants displaced and portions of the building in disrepair.
Among them is Diana Rodriguez, who has lived in the building for about 20 years. She has been unable to return to her apartment since the April fire, which started in a top-floor unit and caused extensive water damage to her home.
The city issued a vacate order for Rodriguez's apartment, forcing her to split her time between her two daughters' homes while regularly returning to the building on Walton Avenue to check on her belongings and retrieve clothing and medication.
"Every day I cry," Rodriguez said. "I want to come home. I want my own space to be my own house."
She said the prolonged displacement has taken a significant emotional toll.
"This is destroying my health. My mental health is taking a toll on my body, and nobody seems to care," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is one of about a dozen tenants who have joined a Housing Court case against the building's owners, the Zar Brothers. The tenants allege long-standing building conditions and a failure to make necessary repairs, arguing that the problems existed long before the fire.
Their attorneys with the New York Legal Assistance Group are asking the court to appoint a 7A administrator, a legal process that transfers management of a building from the landlord to a court-appointed administrator responsible for making repairs and maintaining safe living conditions.
"We're asking the court to essentially take the building away from the landlord," said James Tourangeau, senior coordinating attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group. "It's like the death penalty for a landlord. They're still on the hook for the taxes, the insurance and the mortgage, but they get none of the benefits of owning the building."
The tenants are expected to return to Housing Court in August for what they anticipate will be one of several hearings as the case moves forward.
They say they hope the legal action will ultimately restore the building to the safe condition it was in when many of them first moved in.
