Friday, January 8, 2010

Ceiling on their heads in Manhattan

From NY1:

Tenants living at 803 West 180th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan say the building's leaky roof is literally caving in on them.

Tenants say the rotten roof has been a problem for over six years and the landlord has simply patched up the problem without ever really fixing it.

Jabari Donawa has the most severe case in the building, as paint and plaster hang from his water-stained ceiling.

NY1 reached out to Aragona Management Group, and the landlord claims when they had problems with the roof it was repaired by a roofing company. He also said about 90 percent of the issues were fixed after he went to go to court to be allowed access to the apartments.

Tenants, however, say they always allowed access when they were given advance notice.

Meanwhile, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development cited the building with 231 violations, for everything from roof issues to lead paint violations. HPD made repairs for immediately hazardous violations on 15 occasions for more than $15,000, and the costs were been placed as a lien on the property.

The station asked Aragona Management about the violations, and the landlord would only say they are in a voluntary repair program with the city to remove old and recent violations.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When I was a tenant, i always took care of the apartment myself. Fix it and then take it off the rent. Why live like animals? Waker Up!