Long Island Premises Liability Lawyers report that a wealthy Manhattan landlord claims that he lacks money to repair tenant’s apartments to have safe living conditions.
Manhattan, NY (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) — Tenants in Washington Heights, a part of Manhattan, are living in conditions that are violating health codes while their landlord lives in a 5.9 million dollar mansion at Kings Point, announced by New York Daily News.
A family’s living conditions in their apartment were observed by sources that stated that the elderly tenant spends all night on the couch to avoid water droplets falling on her in the bedroom while she sleeps.
The tenant identified as Gladys Figuera takes care of her 4 grandchildren who live with her ages ranging from 5 to 12-years-old. Gladys also said that her neighbors around her have been suffering from broken ovens, leaky roofs, rusty bathrooms, peeling lead paint, and exposed wires, all while paying rent every month. Figuera said that when she asks for vital repairs to be taken care of, the response she receives from her landlord is that he has no money.
The Figuera family lives on 2145 Amsterdam Avenue in one of the 14 apartment units in Washington Heights that the landlord Bahram Hakakian, known as Danny, owns and is supposed to maintain. Danny has already had 290 violations where as 225 of those were dangerous to the safety of the tenants, according to New York City records. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (DPH) www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/home/home.shtml has directly commanded Danny to specifically repair the roof at 2145 Amsterdam Ave, however he declined and failed to front the money or fix the damaged roof.
Since 2007, Danny has not been taking his rightful responsibility to fix all the $27,000 of pressing repairs that need to be fixed. The DPH employed a service provider to fix the roof for the Figuera family.
Hakakian negligence to his apartment units in comparison to his own lavish million dollar mansion in Kings Point, gives rise to suspicion and has gained him the reputation of a slumlord on the City’s Slumlord Watch List for owning less than 35 apartment units, having 3 spots available, and hazardous violations in most apartments.
Another tenant living in the building said that the running water through her sink stopped functioning months ago. Property records revealed that Hakakian lives in a mansion that is equipped with an elevator, 6 bathrooms, two fireplaces, a pool, and centralized air-conditioning.
Bridget Hom
NewYorkInjuryNews.com