Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Landlord removes fire escape, tenants forced to vacate
From Eyewitness News:
Residents of 2400 Webb Avenue in the Bronx, many with children, disabilities and pets, are being forced to pack up everything they have and move to a new home.
The evacuations come after the owners of the rent-stabilized apartment building put every single resident at risk by removing the fire escapes, leaving hundreds of tenants in a potential death trap.
The building had been under renovations. Then, once the city stumbled upon the missing lifelines, they jumped into action and slapped violations against the owner. On Monday, they made the very difficult decision to vacate.
By 6 p.m. on Tuesday, all residents must leave, meaning the victims had a mere 24 hours to pack up their lives. Extra security will be on every floor just in case. The fire chief says the building managers never really explained why.
It could be months before new fire escapes are installed, and many residents fear that this was all just a sinister ploy to get rid of them and jack up the rent.
The building's owner has offered to put the residents up in hotels until they can move back in.
6 comments:
How sad for the residents. As this is the Bronx, I suspect that the buildings will be looted, vandalized, and perhaps rendered uninhabitable before the fire escapes are replaced.
the landlord did it on purpose to evict tenants with out going through housing court. what kind of hotels will they put people up in ?
the landlord is aided & abetted by the City's Republican administration. you can thank Bloomberg for creating the new slums that Jacob Riis fought so hard to eliminate.
"Tenants, many of whom had lived at 2400 Webb Ave. for decades, said Goldfarb Properties gave them until 6 p.m. to get out — and not enough money to afford anything more than a fleabag motel for the six months it will take to replace the fire escapes."
"The landlords are giving tenants weekly checks for $840 and a list of local hotel options, ousted residents said."
This situations sucks, but $3300 a month is not enough to rent another apartment in the meantime?
Why does it take 6 months to replace fire escapes?
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/tenants-evacuated-bronx-building-bone-headed-builders-remove-fire-escapes-article-1.1090371#ixzz1wyEf9xao
Why does it take 6 months to replace fire escapes?
---Permits, inspections, more permits, DOB inspectors that dont show up, more red tape
I restored 3 houses, other things and have a theory what happened here.
The landlord, building management and contractor came up with a scheme that makes the city remove the people quickly and forcibly. They can then just pay some small fines and tax deductable hotel bills and save a couple million dollars on renovation.
This is far cheaper then a expensive 3 year renovation working around active tenants paying 1984 rent prices.
Landlords, contractors and building management company’s work in triangles of 3 so they can play musical chairs with DOB amd laws “oops communication mistake” These people and lawyers see fines as “taxes” to get things done. Unless the city gets off it ass and starts throwing people in jail expect more gorilla tactics
I’m sure the building is a nightmare of dry rotted cloth electrical wire encased in plaster gypsum, shot plumbing.
Looking at those structural hanger points on the exterior those those fire escape risers couldn’t be much better wall.
The property owners had to know this and took the cheapest way out
Jacob Riis amd Moses made his building fast and cheap to go up
This is a scam. The landlord knew exactly what he was doing. He has emptied his building. After 3 months the tenants will get frustrated and pissed off and find somewhere else to live. He can then renovate and upscale the whole building.
Sounds like illegal eviction,the landlord should be arrested........
Post a Comment