HARLEM — An apartment building owned by Robert Durst's estranged wife was placed on a list of "at-risk" buildings by the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
A 21-unit apartment building at 3149 Broadway — owned by Debrah Lee Charatan, the wife of suspected murderer and real estate scion Robert Durst — was placed under HPD's Proactive Preservation Initiative (PPI) in November, a spokeswoman said, giving the agency the power to take landlords to court for failing to make repairs.
Rent-stabilized tenants of the building told DNAinfo New York in October that their landlord, BCB Property Management, which is run by Charatan, was trying to force them out by turning their homes into a construction zone full of dust, noise, and shaking walls.
Residents also accused BCB of gut-renovating empty apartments in order to hike rents and making extravagant additions to the building, while ignoring basic repairs needed in rent-stabilized apartments.
“They want us out,” said resident David Hanzal, a member of the recently-formed tenant association, who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment.
The building's also been without cooking gas for four months, and currently has 49 open violations for transgressions including water leaks, loose light fixtures and a front door that won't close all the way.
The property was rated “fair” compared to others in the program and is being monitored, according to an HPD spokeswoman. The agency has been working with both the tenants and owner to resolve maintenance issues, she added.
When DNAinfo reported on the building's conditions in October, residents said they had not had cooking gas since the beginning of September. And on Dec. 18, the building’s pipes failed a Con Edison leak test.
The utility company cannot turn the gas back on until the landlord resolves the problem and passes the integrity test, a Con Ed spokesman said.
While tenants continue to live without gas, construction crews have been upgrading the building's modest common areas with luxury finishes like chandeliers, residents said.
“They put this gigantic, extravagant chandelier in the hallway and it’s hysterical,” he said. “Just making the hallway nicer doesn’t make the management better. It doesn’t make my apartment better. They are still not responding to certain things.”
A lawyer representing BCB denied that they were in an HPD program.
Residents of 3149 Broadway reached out to elected officials and a local advocacy group for help when renovations in the building started earlier this year. The fact the the property was placed on the PPI program is the first sign of support from a city agency, he added.
“This is a big deal,” said Elsia Vasquez, founder of the tenant advocacy group Pa’Lante, which referred 3149 Broadway to HPD's PPI program and helped its residents form a tenants association.
“The key thing here is that HPD has been a strategic partner in helping these tenants because the landlord is ignoring them. It’s a moral boost for the tenants because they need support from somewhere.”
