Friday, March 6, 2020

The worst little hostel in Kew Gardens


Forest Hills Post

A quiet Kew Gardens home was illegally converted into a dormitory-style, transient hotel with as many as four bunk beds to a room over the summer — and the law-breaking homeowner was slapped with more than $100,000 in violations.

The two-family home, located at 121-08 84th Ave., was converted to a six-family home with three units on the first floor and three more in the attic level, according to Department of Buildings (DOB) summons.

The homeowner, Edward J. Erhard IV, was issued with 12 summonses and fined $108,500 for the violations. At a hearing in late January, a judge upheld the charges — which include illegal conversion of occupancy and illegal construction without permits — and ordered Erhard to pay the large sum.

Complaints of the illegal hotel operation date back to July 2018 with neighbors stating as many as 16 to 18 people were staying at the two-family house, according to DOB records.
Rooms within the house, which sits on a residential tree-lined block, were advertised on Facebook, according to the complaints.

When an inspector was finally able to enter the building on July 11, 2019 with the help of law enforcement, he found several long-term and transient renters sharing rooms within the house — with as many as three people to a room, according to hearing testimony.

The inspector met two women who were paying $40 a night for a one-night stay — one was sharing a room with a long-term tenant, while the other was staying on the living room couch.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How dose this happen so ofter in Queens ?
Lets hear some reasons ...

Anonymous said...

The dob inspectors should be able to just get a search warrant to search the house for violations. I dont know why it takes so long. I'm sure that this isnt the first house like this and it wont be the last. I dont understand why everybody wants to live here anyway. There are no jobs here that will take you anywhere. Most of the jobs here are low wage. Even with 15 bucks per hour, that wont get you anywhere. People dont seem to realize how sucky it is to live in nyc. I went to Florida recently and had to go through immigration because I was on a cruise and the immigration agent said "where you from?" And I said "queens, ny" and he said "oh big money up there". I looked at him and said "not after you pay rent and taxes". Top off that rent and taxes with utilities and the terribly ran MTA and at the end of the month, theres no money left. Big money my foot! I'm so glad I moved to suffolk county recently.

TommyR said...

Crapster, you can't post a story like this - it goes against the narrative! The home-owner's last name is supposed to be something like CHAN or SINGH, not ERHARD. That sounds GERMAN to me! We let too many Germs into this country in the run up through the second World War, we should've deported the LOT of them and learned our lesson after Ferdinand's assassination! A kraut can NEVER assimilate and will always be more loyal to his lederhosen than to the GLORIOUS RED WHITE AND BLUE!!!!

Anonymous said...

>How dose this happen so ofter in Queens ?
>Lets hear some reasons ...

Way more people want to live here than housing, especially affordable housing, is available.

Anonymous said...

Check your "Red" meds TommyR !

Anonymous said...

Can the house handle the electrical load, let enough the load on the sewers?

Anonymous said...

It's a fire waiting to happen. But where will the illegals live?

Anonymous said...

That is not the only one, go to other areas in Queens, particularly Bayside and Little Neck, the Asians have converted single family homes into three and four family homes. Raising the price of housing and rents. Not to mention you might be living near someone with a bad virus but more likely someone who cannot speak a word of English and won't even smile or say hello when they see you.
Bayside for example was a nice village like community years ago, now its a bunch of Asians, also many areas in Bayside, because of school busing look like the South Bronx with loud and ghetto kids causing trouble. Seen even police regularly patrolling the streets because of these wonderful young "scholars". Never saw that even during the time Dinkins was Mayor and he was weak on law and order. These kids are worse than vagrants I used to see in the Bowery, at least back then they only asked you for change but otherwise were quiet but these kids ruin all the public spaces. If they are such wonderful kids, why does the local police patrol the area constantly???