Take a hike, tenants
Landlord: Use fire escape during stair repair, now pay up
A Manhattan landlord who told tenants to use the fire escape while the building’s only stairs were being repaired has a nasty new message for residents — the bill’s on you.
The brazen landlord has the chutzpah to order rent-regulated tenants — including a Grammy-winning singer — to pay monthly rent hikes of up to $1,056 to cover the costs of replacing the stairs at the landmark five-story walkup building on W. 83rd St.
Adding insult to injury, Pine Management wants to tack on six-figure charges for fines and violations the city slapped on it for starting the job without providing a safe way for tenants to get out of their apartments.
“That’s crazy,” said Robert Desir, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society who handles housing cases. “Whatever penalties that were imposed are not repairs. It has nothing to do with improvements to the building.”
Pine Management did not respond to a request for comment.
The landlord plans to pay the $777,000 bill by raising the rent for all 10 apartments, which include studios and onebedrooms. Five of the apartments are rent-stabilized, meaning rent hikes are normally strictly controlled, and all of those are occupied by senior citizens.
“It wasn’t OK when they wanted the tenants to climb out of their windows to get in and out of their own apartments,” said Sarah Crean, an aide to City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Upper West Side). “It’s not OK now that they want them to pay more for their own mistakes.”
The landlord first made headlines in July 2017 when owners abruptly told tenants the stairs were being replaced. Instead of figuring out a way to allow them to get around the work, the owners told tenants to use the fire escapes.
The city slapped the landlord with a string of violations and ordered a safer process for the renovation work.
“Our doors were covered with plastic sheets and we had to zip in and out to get into our apartments,” said tenant Carol Maillard, 68, a founding member of the Grammy-winning singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock who pays about $1,000 a month in rent. “If anything happens here, I mean, how do I get out? How does anybody get out?”
Joy Hook, who has lived in the building for 39 years, said the job turned into a nightmare that went on for nearly a year.
“We had planks in the hallway with string for banisters,” said Hook, who lives on the third floor. “It was scary; the ceiling in the hallway collapsed at night.”
Tenants say the whole project was unnecessary and say contractors told them the landlord paid much less than he claimed by getting dozens of buildings done in a package deal.
Now that the work is finally over, tenants were stunned to find out the landlord wants them to foot the bill.
Included in the sky-high tab are questionable items like the $100,000 cost of hiring fire guards that were ordered by the city after the unsafe project was reported. Other less-thankosher claims included the costs of stop-work orders issued by the city when the construction was deemed not up to snuff.