Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bronx tenants take landlord to court after 113 complaint calls to 311 fail to solve poor living conditions

 Mercedes Batista, a resident 1505 Townsend for over 21 years, said that she has to all but carry her elderly mother through the lobby so she does not fall on the dangerously slippery floor.

New Settlement Apartments



Mercedes Batista, a resident 1505 Townsend for over 21 years, said that she has to all but carry her elderly mother through the lobby so she does not fall on the dangerously slippery floor.




Dial L for Lawsuit.


After a whopping 113 calls to 311 failed to restore heat and hot water at a Mount Eden apartment complex, tenants now plan on ringing up a lawsuit against their landlord.


RELATED: BROOKLYN BUILDING ON 377 OCEAN PARKWAY IS KING OF COLD


Residents at 1505 Townsend Ave., where heat and hot water have worked intermittently since early December, filed a lawsuit in Bronx Housing Court, calling on landlord Townsend Realty Estates to address 194 open violations.


“Calling 311 is a tool, not a solution, to a problem,” says Lourdes De La Cruz, a tenant at the building. “Some times you need to take further action, like taking your landlord to court to continue to pressure them to make repairs.”


RELATED: A FLURRY OF TICKETS FOR UN-SHOVELED SIDEWALKS


The lawsuit was filed after more than a hundred calls to 311 between Dec. 13, 2013 and Feb. 19, failed to resolve a littany of problems, from a lack of heat and hot water to exposed nails jutting out of tenants’ doors.


Other issues were nearly as problematic, including a lobby floor that’s routinely wet because of a leak from above.


RELATED: THEY’RE BACK! MANHATTAN LANDLORDS ARE STARTING TO OFFER CONCESSIONS AGAIN AS TENANTS PUSH BACK


“In order to take my elderly mother to the doctor’s office and walk through the lobby, I almost have to carry her to prevent her from falling,” said Mercedes Batista, a resident at the building for more than 20 years.





Yahoo Local News – New York Daily News




http://ift.tt/1hmW45p

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

No comments:

Post a Comment