Black mold, vermin infestations, water leaks, a broken front door lock and an elevator out of service since August 2023 — these are just some of the problems that have plagued tenants at 2201-05 Davidson Ave. in University Heights for years.
The Legal Aid Society’s Housing Justice Unit Group Advocacy on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the property owners to address these problems, which amount to almost 500 open violations with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
“This egregious inaction has to end, and these owners must be forced to account for their years of neglect,” said Legal Aid Staff Attorney Russell Crane in a statement Tuesday.
Some long-neglected emergency repairs had to be completed with funding from HPD’s Emergency Repair Program — meaning that taxpayers footed the bill.
There are 49 rent-stabilized units at 2201-05 Davidson Ave., which is owned by are Romad Realty, LLC, 2201 Davidson NY Holdings LLC, David Kornitzer and Dov Guttman. The owners could not be reached for comment before press time.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 25 tenants who also accuse the owners of what Crane called “harassment by negligence” — letting the building fall into disrepair, causing tenants to leave their highly coveted affordable rent-stabilized apartments.
In addition to the violations, the owners owe over $24M in back taxes to the city — and there is “little chance” of resolving that issue, Legal Aid Staff Attorneys Ben Seibel and Russell Crane told the Bronx Times on Tuesday.
The lawsuit calls not only for the building to be repaired but for the city to intervene and remove the current owners — either placing the building in the hands of a responsible nonprofit partner or enabling it to eventually become a tenant-owned cooperative.
Seibel told the Bronx Times that there is precedent for this type of takeover. But a city program for this purpose, called the Third Party Transfer Program, fell under criticism about five years ago and has been paused ever since, he said.
The lawsuit is not the first problem for the property owners. The Legal Aid Society alleges that the building has been in “a state of serious disrepair” for over a decade — and while problems have not gone unnoticed by the city, owners managed to avoid responsibility in the past.
According to information from Legal Aid, in 2015, the city moved to foreclose on the building’s tax debt — but investors quickly bought the interest and filed for bankruptcy to stop the foreclosure.
Legal Aid said that owners did make some repairs in 2016 but have not kept up their end of the bargain since then. The owners did not take action on bankruptcy requirements, and the case was eventually dismissed, but the owners still never paid back taxes — and continued collecting rent while failing to maintain the building.
Tenants worked with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, whom they have partnered with over ten years, to take legal action against their landlord.
“It’s no longer appropriate to continue investing tax payers dollars and organizing energy on getting the ‘owners’ of the building to do what’s very simple: provide a safe home to tenants,” said Edward Garcia, the group’s co-organizing director, in a statement Tuesday.
Tenants and advocates hope the lawsuit will finally create a better, more sustainable future for the building and its residents. Garcia told the Bronx Times on Tuesday that they want the city to announce a plan for intervention “as soon as possible.”
The building owners should “just walk away,” he said, and “give tenants an opportunity to own.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
