From NY1:
In a duplex in Jamaica, Queens, two families are still enduring damage from Hurricane Sandy.
"It's horrible no one should have to live like this," said renter Natasha Francis. "I feel like the hurricane is in my home."
Her building's second floor, which had been leaking since the storm hit on October 29, finally collapsed after Friday's rain and wind. Francis was left with soggy floors, ruined furniture, mold in a daughter's bedroom and constant scrubbing with bleach with little result.
The landlord told her he cannot afford to make repairs.
"I'm upset. I'm angry, because I've spoken to my landlord about this and now it's gotten so worse and now it's unliveable. I can't live here with my kids," Francis said.
Downstairs, Khaleeda Khan's family said they fear they will soon see damages. By Saturday night, their ceiling was cracking above the Christmas tree, so the decorations were coming down.
"It's not the Christmas I imagined," Khan said. "I did all my shopping, all the preparations to have a good Christmas for my kids, my family and we're not going to have it."
7 comments:
How com this house is not condemend since the second floor collapsed?
The tenants are in serious danger and should leave.
Stop being invisible people!
DO NOT SUFFER IN SILENCE! IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED YOU!
Write to the Queens weeklies. Call the TV action desk. Start a blog. Get organized with others in your plight.
Ask your electeds publicly what they are doing. Ask them why the system is good at building but failed at taking care of the people. Ask them why your suffering is invisible to them since they still want to build on the waterfront.
Buildings don't vote. You do. If they want to take care of creating more buildings while dumping on you, remember that on election day.
I've been in that same spot.
I DECIDED to pay for the repairs myself...then held back my rent money and put into an escrow account.
And that was that.
My greedy landlord DID NOT even attempt to take me to court. That would have cost him more money since HE had to take the first $$$$$ step.
There is such a thing as "the warrant of habitability" in NYC that a landlord is subject to.
I've always maintained a renter's insurance policyo n my apartment.
That has covered me a few times. It was a nominal premium that I paid and well worth it.
The structural damage is the landlords responsibility. Why can't he afford the repairs? If he has a mortgage on the building, he is required to have insurance. If he doesn't have a mortgage, he can afford the repairs. Either way, the landlord should have the building taken from him.
It’s a good thing they were doing routine checkups after the storm hit. Either that, or someone reported the damaged power pole. Regardless, kudos to them for keeping their promise and fixing the problem in an hour’s time.
It must’ve been some storm to have cracked those poles and topple those trees as you’ve mentioned. Hopefully, those trees didn’t fall on any of the houses in the neighborhood, as they seem to be planted pretty close to them. That would’ve been quite a headache indeed.
The landlord can’t say that he doesn’t have the money to repair the damaged unit and still demand payment every month. That is just plain ridiculous. Either he fixes it so that it becomes habitable again or relocate the tenant to a vacant unit, if there is one. In the case that there isn’t, he should stop asking for rent until proper repairs have been done. From the looks of things, the tenants downstairs were also on the verge of losing their home because the water was slowly seeping for said damage on the upper unit.
Lino
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