Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Housing agency sides with tenants


Elaborate plans by a Queens landlord to sell off portions of his rent-stabilized Hollis Court Gardens apartment complex as two-family homes were thwarted by a state decision last week.

Plan to sell Queens apartment complex thwarted

Tenants of the complex, at 202nd St. and Hollis Ave., accused the landlord, Joseph Kohn, of using strong-arm tactics and making an end run around rent-stabilization laws to oust tenants.

Seven old-growth trees already have been cut down, and contractors have filled up ditches in the backyard with construction debris from renovations inside vacant apartments in the complex, Broomfield said.

Kohn was in the process of dividing up the common courtyard into parking spaces and individual backyards. In its decision, the state housing agency noted that for such construction to take place, the owner and tenant must be in "mutual voluntary written agreement." A review discovered the majority of tenants were against the changes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hooray, finally the "we-people" win a scrimmage!

Anonymous said...

Why do they always have to cut the trees down ?

The owner deserves to be hanged for arboricide.......
at least.....upside down by his ankles.

Anonymous said...

This has happened to us in Springfield Gardens.The 2 family buildings were sold as private 2 family homes or condos. Thomas Kontogiannis & Group Kappa Corp,who are being sued for mortgage fraud by DLJ Mortgage Capital, have sold many of the 2 family rent stabilized buildings which are said to be subdivided,but there 5 boilers in my basement. So how did you gain success?? I have complained to every agency and so far no help.

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