New York Identifies 250 Buildings as Worst in the City, Landlords Face Consequences

NEW YORK.– New York authorities have identified 250 buildings that can be classified as the worst in the City.

Mold, doors that won’t close, rodent infestation and other complaints accumulate in these buildings as landlords fail to make necessary repairs.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) compiles a list of buildings with the most violations.

Of that list of 250, 119 are located in Brooklyn, 72 in the Bronx, 43 in Manhattan and 16 in Queens.

However the Bronx is the one with the most affected homes, accounting for about 2,000.

Joanna Santos lives in one of them and points out that she has been battling leaks and humidity in her apartment for more than a year.

“Hey, a lot of water is falling. That is every day and I have a sick child, ”she denounced.

Commissioner Adolfo Carrión explains that landlords are given a set amount of time to correct violations and may face consequences if they fail to do so.

“We identified 250 buildings that are the sickest patients. The worst,” she said.

“We have exhausted all our options, we give them time to correct the violations, if they do not correct them, we arrive with a team, we do the work and we invoice the owner,” he added.

If the problem is not corrected, the owners could even lose the building.

“If they don’t correct it, we take them to court and the point comes where they can lose their property,” he said.

At the moment, the department has 39,000 open complaints and the owners owe about $3.4 million in repairs.