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Tenants of Inwood Building Ravaged by Fire Want Super Replaced

By Carla Zanoni | March 29, 2011 10:03am | Updated on March 29, 2011 11:25am

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

INWOOD — Residents from a building that suffered massive damage during a December fire that left several people homeless plan to request their landlord remove the building's superintendent, whom they say has been negligent.

The residents, who met for the first time as a newly created tenant group for 510 West 218th St., complained last week that maintenance of the building has deteriorated after the fire and said that security is at an all time low, with locks yet to be installed at the entrance.

"All in attendance agreed that our superintendent needs to be replaced by someone who actually does his job," said vice president of the group John Galvin, whose family had lost its apartment and pet daschund.

Residents are calling for a new superintendent, because their 510 W. 218th St. apartment building has fallen into disrepair after a December blaze that left several tenants homeless and killed two family pets.
Residents are calling for a new superintendent, because their 510 W. 218th St. apartment building has fallen into disrepair after a December blaze that left several tenants homeless and killed two family pets.
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DNAinfo/Mariel S. Clark

Landlord Hakim Azizi did not return calls for comment and repeated attempts to locate the building's super were unsuccessful.

Although tenants cannot go through a city agency to request a superintendent's removal, if a landlord refuses that request from tenants, they can use it as ammunition to get their rent reduced through the state's Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), according to George Fernandez, chair of Community Board 12's Housing and Human Services.

Tenants from five apartments, some of who lost pets and most of their belongings, have been told they will likely not be able to return to their homes for at least one year while repairs are made.

But even that timetable seems dubious to many tenants, who complain of hallways that have yet to be scrubbed clean of smoke and burn marks and a garbage vestibule in the basement that has become overrun with rats.

Residents who were allowed to stay in their apartments also complain that landlord Azizi has yet to distribute portable electric grills in lieu of the cooking gas that was shut off after the fire.

More than 50 complaints have been filed with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) since the fire in December, with complaints ranging from vermin in the building to exposed electrical wiring in the common hallways.

Eric Bederman, a spokesman for HPD, said that although work has slightly slowed, because of a funding issue between the building's contractor and insurance company, he maintains an earlier statement by HPD officials that repairs are being made on a "reasonable" timetable.