A Bronx tenant has reached a $165,000 settlement with his former landlord following a more than three-year legal battle over harassment and an illegal eviction from his Crotona apartment, according to court documents.
The 25-year-old man, identified in court filings by the initials A.T., alleged that his landlord engaged in multiple forms of harassment, including lease discrimination, turning off the heat, theft, and unlawfully locking him out of his home.
In a statement following the settlement, A.T. said he hopes his case will inspire other tenants facing landlord abuse to stand up for their rights and seek justice.
“I lived in constant fear of my landlord. I am thankful that they are finally being held accountable,” said tenant A.T. “I’m just trying to work, go to school, and live my life – I hope my case inspires others to stand up and fight back.”
Eliza Schafler, a housing attorney for the Bronx branch of Legal Services NYC, which provides free legal help to low income New Yorkers, worked on A.T.’s case against his landlord. She told the Bronx Times that landlords harassing tenants is a huge problem in New York City.
“ The type of harassment that A.T. experienced really came down to being illegally evicted from his home,” Schafler said. “There are many other types of harassment too, but illegal eviction is actually extremely common, even though it is such a terrifying thing.”
A.T. moved into his apartment at 2174 Crotona Ave. in the fall of 2020, using a broker that he met through his mother. But even though his landlord, Leze Preldakaj of MP & LP Realty LLC, accepted his initial rent payments and security deposit through the broker, she didn’t provide him with a written lease agreement until about a month later, according to court documents.
City records show that Preldakaj owns two buildings, both in Crotona. The apartment building where A.T. lived currently has 12 open violations with Housing Preservation and Development, the city’s agency that oversees housing safety and landlord complaints.
But when A.T.—who had a steady job and good credit—reviewed the lease, he noticed his mother was listed as a tenant. He asked the landlord to correct the error before signing, but according to court records, she refused, saying A.T. was “too young,” and left with the unsigned lease.
According to the complaint, that’s when the harassment began. The heat and power would randomly go out in A.T.’s apartment in the middle of winter even though the electricity company said there had been no outages. A.T. believed, court documents show, that Preldakaj was controlling the heat from the basement apartment where she lived with her son.
Preldakaj’s attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but court filings show that the landlord denied harassing A.T.
Preldakaj, according to court records, claimed that she never turned off the heat in A.T.’s apartment and that it’s impossible to control the heat in only one unit. She said that A.T. and his mother were the only tenants to ever complain.
A.T. alleged that in the spring of 2021, he returned home to find the locks on his apartment had been changed. According to court filings, after a verbal confrontation with his landlord’s son, he called the police and presented proof of residency. A locksmith was then permitted to change the locks and let him back inside.
Once inside, A.T. said he found his belongings stuffed into garbage bags and scattered throughout the apartment. Two days later, he returned with an inspector from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), only to discover that all of his possessions were gone, the documents state.
Schafler told the Bronx Times that it’s a common tactic for landlords who want their tenants out.
“ Oftentimes landlords who are legally evicting people will trash their belongings, steal them, throw them out or just get rid of them – that’s theft,” Schafler said. “But people don’t usually sue their landlords for theft because they don’t have attorneys. They just don’t have the resources to bring those sorts of claims.”
But still, A.T. fought to stay in his apartment, buying new things and rarely leaving for fear of being locked out again while the same pattern of harassment continued for months, according to court documents.
“ It just impacts every facet of your life,” Schafler said. “A.T. had to drop out of school. He had a lot of emotional issues and trauma as a result of being illegally evicted. He lost a lot of money and savings and his treasured belongings. So it was a really traumatic event for him that affected his whole life.”
Schafler told the Bronx Times that people who are being harassed by their landlord are often stuck in between two incredibly stressful scenarios.
“ In some ways, many people who are illegally evicted, harassed and robbed by their landlords are faced with a choice, even if they can get back into their homes, of whether to stay and live in fear or have ongoing problems or to try to find somewhere else,” Schafler said.
She advised apartment seekers to read their leases carefully and double check to make sure they know they are being charged a fair rent. But with the city’s housing shortage and affordability crisis, tenants, especially ones with a low-income, are less likely to have multiple housing options.
“It’s hard because on the front end there’s desperation – people who are struggling to find housing or they’re already homeless or in an unstable situation may get into a dangerous situation because they don’t have a choice.”
