INWOOD — Tenants of an Uptown building are fired up after living without gas for almost six months, in spite of a concerted effort to get their management company to take action, they say.
Frustrated residents of 165-175 Sherman Ave. said that they have been without gas in their homes since June 2.
The building’s management company, EDS Management, has been unresponsive to their complaints and did not begin physical repairs at the building until November, tenants said.
Records from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development show that 17 complaints about the lack of gas have been lodged since June. The building currently has 45 open violations for various issues and five of those are related to the current lack of gas in the building.
Tenants also say that EDS has done little to give relief to residents beyond offering them hot plates that frequently break and, in a few cases, have caught on fire.
“It’s been the bane of my year,” said Nathalie Serrano, who has lived in the building for five years. “It was something I thought would last maybe a week and it’s just dragged on and on.”
Serrano, 28, who lives with her husband and her two-year-old son, said that the hot plates the management company provided are a poor substitute for her stove.
“It has two burners, but if I try to cook on both of them, one of them goes out,” said Serrano, who estimated that they spend about $200 more each month to purchase prepared food because they don't have a working oven or stove. She added that the hot plate takes more than 40 minutes to boil a pot of water.
The burner also frequently trips a fuse, causing the electricity in parts of her apartment to go out, she said. In addition, Serrano had to ask for a second hot plate after the plastic on the side of the first device melted.
Resident Kenneth Altman said that he also had to request a second hot plate after the first one broke in September. However, he's been even more frustrated by the lack of communication from EDS.
“The first month or two was OK,” Altman said. “You want to be patient and not be a trouble maker, but for the last five months or so, they have not returned my calls about this or related issues.”
Altman said that he spoke to Elliott Wolbrom, the head of the management company, in August about possibly reducing his rent while the gas was not working.
Since then Altman said he has made at least five attempts to talk to the management office and has never received a return phone call, although he has continued to pay his rent in full.
More than 50 tenants from the 102-unit building attended a meeting on Nov. 8 to discuss the gas issue, residents said. After the meeting, Altman and resident Kyla Williamson sent a letter on the tenants’ behalf to the building’s owners, Lawrence Berger and Martha Spier.
In the Nov. 24 letter, residents asked EDS Management to expedite repairs on the building by increasing the number of workers and to appoint a contact person to address their concerns.
They also asked for a partial rent rebate to cover their time without full services in the building and a reduction in future rent while the gas line is being fixed.
Williamson, who has lived in the building for 22 years, said that the lack of a working oven or stove has caused financial hardships for many tenants.
“A lot of our families are just making it,” she said. “They are choosing in some cases between buying food and paying rents.”
The letter also asked that the dual-burner hot plates given to tenants in June be replaced with safer models that work better.
“We take great pride in our neighborhood, and in the community that exists in this building, and we are disappointed, frustrated, and even afraid for our safety, and not for the first time, at the ongoing lack of concern and communication on the part of EDS Management,” the letter said.
Messages left with EDS Management went unreturned. The building’s owners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, tenants said that after they sent the letter and DNAinfo New York made inquiries into the situation, EDS Management did respond to them.
“[They said] they want to do as much as possible that we asked for in the letter,” Williamson said.
She noted that Wolbrom also said tenants could expect a formal reply in the next few days.
“I say it’s too soon to start holding your breath, but there is finally an indication that the owners realize the terrible situation we are in,” she said.
