Abandoned Foreclosed Units in New York Spell Danger and Pain for Occupants
Photo by Shoes on Wires
Even though the housing bubble burst a few years ago, many New York residents continue to suffer. There are nearly 30,000 foreclosures waiting in the courts of the five bouroughs. Many cases have been in a state of limbo for years as more and more lenders abandon their units. The renters have to cope with dangerous conditions as well.
During this time of crisis, the attention has primarily been on the single-family houses whose owners defaulted on their mortgage dues. Thousands of other tenants were also affected by this when their landlords came under the axe. Lately, laws passed and new laws being drafted are shedding some light on their plight. Unfortunately, time is running out for the tenants whose houses are literally crumbling apart.
Brad Lander of the City Council said, “It’s a widespread problem in the city. With foreclosures, you wind up with this long limbo period when the owner basically just stops taking care of the building. There are quite a few building where tenants have had to live without things like heat and hot water as a result”.
A good number of renters are now trying to find legal redress by way of compelling banks to take on the responsibility of these units. Last August, the occupants of a building comprising of 20 apartments in Bronx’s Longfellow Avenue filed a suit against the New York Community Bank. The latter was foreclosing and the tenants wanted the bank to see to the building’s repairs. The building had fallen into disrepair since it was bought in 2007 by a firm named 1255 Longfellow LLC.
The latter had taken a loan of $1.1 million. From that time on, city authorities have issued 117 code violation notices. Some of the complaints pertained to interrupted heat and supply of hot water during winter, ceilings caving in and widespread mold formation.
A similar suit was filed last May in Brooklyn by six tenants who were senior citizens; some of which were disabled. They alleged that they were being compelled to live in deteriorating conditions– hot water supply and heat was intermittent, roofs were leaking and threatened to collapse at any moment, the front doors were insecure etc. The situation also eventually worsened because the owner defaulted on a mortgage loan of $1.85 million two years previously.
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