By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/ Producer
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Tenants who rented apartments from Pinnacle Group LLC in Washington Heights, Inwood and West Harlem in the past six years are eligible to join a class-action lawsuit against the landlord — and the Manhattan Borough President is holding a meeting Sunday to show them how.
Borough President Scott Stringer called the meeting of past and current tenants along with the tenant advocacy group Buyers and Renters United to Save Harlem in order to raise awareness among possible victims of Pinnacle’s alleged harassment tactics before the end of the class-action entry deadline.
“With its power and money, the defendants may have cynically considered this lawsuit just another cost of doing business,” Stringer said in a statement. “But instead, justice will be served.”
A federal judge ruled last month that a 2007 lawsuit against Pinnacle and its chief executive, Joel Wiener, should be allowed to expand to include eligible tenants from around the city who rented from the company between between July 11, 2004 and late last month. The lawsuit claims that the company tried to push tenants out of their rent-regulated apartments using tactics like overcharging them on rent, allowing the buildings to fall into disrepair and harassing them.
The lawsuit also alleges that the Pinnacle Group’s conduct violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) as well as the New York State Consumer Protection Act.
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon’s opinion stated that, if the plaintiffs’ allegations are true, all of Pinnacle’s “rent-regulated tenants either have been subjected to, or are at risk of being subjected to the same pattern of racketeering.”
Pinnacle Group owns approximately 194 apartment buildings in Manhattan, with nearly 40 in Northern Manhattan.
"The fact that they have to advertise for plaintiffs three years after the case was brought doesn’t say much about the strength of the complaint," said an attorney for the company.
"Pinnacle is proud of its record of providing safe and affordable housing for thousands of New York families and is confident that, when this case finally is heard in court, the claim will be found to be completely baseless. Obviously, an organization that manages as many properties as Pinnacle is bound to make some mistakes, but a claim that there is some vast conspiracy is overblown."
The meeting will be held at the Oberia Dempsey Center Auditorium at 127 West 127th Street.
For more information or to register for the meeting, contact 212-669-2094
