Grand Concourse tenants are suing ‘the city’s number one worst landlord’.
Thirty-eight tenants from 750 Grand Concourse joined Community Action for Safe Apartments members in a rally outside Bronx Housing Court on the morning of Monday, April 4 as they prepared a court case against their landlord, Ved Parkash.
With support from the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center and CASA, the tenants filed a complaint against Parkash to pressure him into making vital repairs.
The property in question, 750 Grand Concourse, is a six-story 100-unit rent stabilized building a few blocks from Yankee Stadium.
The tenants claim that their building has fallen into disrepair since Parkash purchased it 20 years ago.
This past Saturday, March 12, a section of 750 Grand Concourse’s laundry room collapsed onto a gas pipe causing the NYC Department of Buildings to cut off gas service to the property. Many tenants are now without working stoves.
Last November, Parkash was ranked ‘number one’ on NYC Public Advocate Letitia James’ ‘100 Worst Landlords in New York City’ with a total of 2,369 violations in 11 buildings and 720 units in the Bronx.
These buildings include 2675 Creston Avenue, 2125 Cruger Avenue, 2487 Davidson Avenue, 180 E. 163rd Street, 58 E. 190th Street, 751 Gerard Avenue, 815 Gerard Avenue, 750 Grand Concourse, 2820 Sedgwick Avenue, 2454 Tiebout Avenue and 835 Walton Avenue.
Parkash owns nearly 40 buildings in the Bronx and many of them have mold, spotty heat and hot water, leaks, missing bathroom tiles, cracked walls and ceilings, faulty appliances, missing window guards and dirty common areas violations.
Some of the most severe violations at 750 Grand Concourse include lack of cooking gas, issues with their plumbing systems and peeling lead paint, said Kerriann Pauls, staff attorney at the Community Development Project at Urban Justice Center.
A CASA spokesman confirmed staffers for Public Advocate James visited the property on Monday, November 16 and Monday, November 23 to investigate the open NYC Housing Preservation and Development and NYC Department of Buildings’ violations.
“We are here to send a message to Parkash,” said Yoselyn Gomez, tenant leader. “We need to live in the same conditions in which he lives because we pay rent.”
Councilman Rafael Salamanca joined the tenants on that rainy Monday to lend his support as the tenants filed their petition against Parkash.
“The conditions they have had to live in are absolutely outrageous and we need to hold their landlord accountable,” said Salamanca. “In the coming weeks, my office will be working with the city to identify all solutions to ensure he takes action to address their concerns and I thank CASA for their leadership on this fight.”
The landlord’s attorney, Anurag Parkash, Ved Parkash’s son, appeared at and promised to make repairs at 750 Grand Concourse.
Pauls confirmed Parkash agreed to correct the over 500 HPD open violations at the building within 30 days.
Since the first court date Parkash has been attending to the repairs.
Judge Laurie Marin will once again preside over this case at a follow-up Wednesday, May 11 court hearing at Bronx Housing Court.
