By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — Nearly three months after a fire in an Inwood apartment building killed two family pets and left substantial damage, almost 20 residents have formed a tenants group to pressure their landlord to make repairs.
At a meeting organized by advocacy group the Inwood Association Committee of Tenants' Rights (IACTR) and Councilman Robert Jackson’s office, the tenants of 510 W. 218th Street said they hoped forming the group would mean their homes would be fixed quickly.
Although officials from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) say landlord Hakim Azizi has been making repairs on a "reasonable" timetable, residents complain they have been slow-going since the Dec. 9 fire, with some tenants still unable to gain access to their homes to retrieve belongings.
"Our hesitation in dealing with him is that we don’t trust that he will follow his word," one tenant said at the meeting.
Azizi did not return calls for comment.
HPD officials said repairs to the building could take anywhere from another two months to one year to be completed.
Tenants also claimed that despite promises the building would be properly secured, items have regularly "gone missing" from the five vacated apartments and repair requests to secure the building have been ignored.
HPD officials said they would work with the tenants to ensure security measures like proper lighting in the lobby as well as the replacement of a malfunctioning lock on the front door of the building, and that a broken intercom be fixed as soon as possible.
Martin Collins, a spokesman from Jackson’s office, said he would continue to work with the 34th Precinct to maintain adequate policing in the area.
In January, police officials reported one television had been stolen from the building the day after the fire. Police did not immediately respond to requests for information about new theft claims.
"I have called the landlord to tell him my apartment is not a shopping mall," said Darren Nimtich, who said rings had gone "missing" the day after the fire in which he lost his pet cat.
"I understand they’re trying to clean things out, but we don’t want more of our things to go missing than already have."
