BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY June 9, 2019 10
Mount Eden tenants sue, protest neglectful landlord
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THE BRONX TIMES REPORTER V.I.M.
BY ALEX MITCHELL
A group of south Bronx tenants
have had enough with a landlord
that they say is neglectful.
Residents of 1485 Macombs
Road rallied outside Bronx Housing
Court at 1118 Grand Concourse
prior to launching a lawsuit against
landlord Robert Khomari, the second
one against the 49-unit building’s
landlord in two years.
The Mount Eden tenants are
demanding action in fi xing what a
representative of the tenants called
“hazardous and demeaning living
conditions threatening the health
and safety of their families.”
Some of those conditions in the
prewar complex are spelled out in
the current 190 open housing violations
issued to the prewar Macombs
Road property by the NYC Housing
Preservation and Development.
Meanwhile, three of the building’s
eight gas lines are not functioning
and several tenants have
been without cooking gas for nine
months, according to Community
Action for Safe Apartments, who’s
assisting the tenants in court.
The tenants’ complaints include
inconsistent access to elevators in
the six-story building, light outages
and overall building-wide maintenance.
“Many tenants are spending
their own money to maintain their
homes in order to live in safe apartments,”
the spokesperson said.
While these residents were
granted a rent reduction by the
NYS Division Housing and Community
Renewal, Khomari and his
team have not honored the rent reductions
for many tenants nor have
they complied in offering lease renewals,
CASA says.
Tenants have also been offered
buy-outs by the landlord, which has
struck concern due to the recent rezoning
of Jerome Avenue and the
anticipated cost of living rise that’s
anticipated.
Greg Baltz, one of the attorney’s
on the case against Khomari and
Macombs Place LLC explained how
these allegations against the property’s
management are legally defi ned
within the expanded defi nition of
tenant harassment.
“These people have been dealing
with harassment for years,” Baltz
said, detailing how gas outages have
been occurring since 2018 as well as
how necessary, city mandated repairs
have also not been complied
with.
The tenant’s previous suit from
2017 was discontinued when repairs
were addressed and conditions improved
in the building during the
court proceedings, Baltz also explained.
That suit alleged a lack of heat
and hot water, water pipe leaks,
mold, broken appliances, collapsing
ceilings, a broken intercom, poor
hallway lighting, broken mailboxes
ands rodent and roach infestations.
Although, this time Baltz and his
legal team aren’t positive whether
or not that will be the result from
the new lawsuit.
“The tenants of this building
asked us to push as hard as we can
to keep the case in court,” Baltz
said.
They also united to form a tenants
association in the building to
put pressure on Khomari to keep
up with the legal standards of maintaining
the property as well.
Baltz said that the lawsuit was
“only one way to have the landlord
live up to his legal obligations,” mentioning
that the tenants association
was another major step to keeping
the management in check. Citywide,
Khomari runs and owns 36
residential properties, 33 of which
are in the southwest Bronx.
The next court date for this case
is on Friday, June 7 when Baltz and
his fi rm will attend a pre-trial hearing.
Calls to Macombs Place LLC
were not returned.
Tennants outside of bronx Housing Court on Wednesday, May 22. Courtesy of CASA
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