Six days earlier than the fatal fire this week at 209 Dyckman Road in Inwood, HPD brought a case in opposition to the house owners at their property subsequent door. One allegation caught my consideration.
The Division of Housing Preservation and Growth cited a $100 buyout in Queens as proof of the landlords’ dangerous conduct. I made a decision to take a better take a look at that, as a result of buyouts have turn out to be increasingly rare and 100 bucks is a pittance.
Few buyouts occur anymore as a result of the 2019 rent reform eliminated the 20 % lease bonus that incentivized landlords to purchase out rent-stabilized tenants.
Buyouts for substantial rehabilitation tasks are also dead, due to the Division of Housing and Neighborhood Renewal. (Sub-rehab buyouts stay authorized however they now make getting approval tougher, relatively than simpler.)
So, why did the landlords sued by HPD pay a tenant $100 to depart?
The company’s complaint in opposition to Jack Bick, Ariel Bick, Howard Bick, Chaim Schweid, Janjan Realty Corp. and SB Dyckman LLC, filed on April 27, alleges they harassed tenants by failing to restore “harmful situations” at 207 Dyckman Road. HPD included a photograph of a gap in a ceiling and three pictures of peeling paint.
The landlords’ purpose, in keeping with HPD, was to exchange tenants who had preferential rents with tenants paying the complete authorized lease. That is the one small manner that the 2019 HSTPA incentivized buyouts: It locked in preferential rents for tenants, which means solely new tenants may very well be charged the complete authorized lease.
HPD accused 207 Dyckman’s house owners of neglecting unsafe situations “as a part of an intentional and aggressive marketing campaign to harass and displace lease stabilized tenants — efforts which have included, in one other county, coming into a stipulation with a professional se lease stabilized tenant that provided them a $100 fee to vacate their house.”
I doubt a buyout in one other county has any authorized relevance to the Inwood case, however let’s set that query apart. Persuading an harmless tenant to simply accept a meager buyout is basic exploitation. Is that what occurred right here?
HPD was referring to JB Hartman LLC’s agreement with tenant Dorian Rease at 10-15 Hartman Lane, Far Rockaway. What the company didn’t point out is that it stemmed from a nonpayment case the owner introduced in opposition to Rease and two allegedly unauthorized subtenants.
Rease’s preferential lease was $1,696, a reduction of $307 from the unit’s authorized lease. Landlords typically give preferential rents to retain a great tenant, however on this case it was most likely as a result of nobody would pay $2,004 a month for the Far Rockaway unit.
It seems that Rease wasn’t even paying the preferential lease as a result of, he advised the courtroom, he couldn’t afford it. Half the time he paid solely $1,000 or $500, and the opposite half he paid nothing. After 14 months, in keeping with the proprietor, he owed $18,419.
In December, Rease signed a handwritten agreement acknowledging lease arrears of $21,812 and promising to vacate the unit by Jan. 15. In alternate, he would obtain $100. Rease deliberate to stick with his grandmother. “It was clear that [he] knew what he was signing,” wrote the owner’s legal professional, Dwij Patel.
HPD is appropriate that if Rease had a bulldog lawyer, he would have requested for lots greater than $100 — not as a result of he deserved it, however as a result of he might have dragged out the case in Queens’ dysfunctional housing court for an additional yr or two, costing the owner one other $40,000 in misplaced lease.
Regardless, it doesn’t look like the owner was harassing somebody to depart as a way to increase the lease by $307. It sounds just like the Bicks had been making an attempt to eliminate a tenant who from August 2024 to October 2025 didn’t pay the complete lease whereas sharing his house with individuals unknown.
The story has a shock ending: Rease didn’t depart in January as deliberate, and in February the owner agreed to maintain him as a rent-stabilized tenant. As for the lease, he has some catching as much as do.
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