LOWER EAST SIDE — Following an investigation into the practices of property management company Marolda Properties, Inc., Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have filed a lawsuit against the company claiming it attempted to harass elderly rent-stabilized tenants out of their homes in Chinatown and the Lower East Side.
Representatives for Marolda removed toilets from the apartments of elderly tenants at 13-15 Essex St. in August of this year and never replaced them, forcing the tenants — one of whom is disabled — to climb three flights of stairs to reach a restroom, according to Cuomo's office.
This is just one instance of harassment tactics the landlord used against longtime tenants in an attempt to oust the rent-stabilized residents and put in market-rate tenants, according to the lawsuit the governor's office said it filed in New York Supreme Court.
"This administration has no tolerance for those who seek to undermine the rights of tenants and use intimidation and harassment to deny them the protections they are entitled to under the law," Cuomo said in a statement.
Marolda reps locked tenants out of their apartments at times, and subjected them to unsafe living conditions, such as switching off their gas and forcing them to use hot-plates to cook their food, the lawsuit claims.
Marolda also tried to oust longtime tenants, many of whom were elderly and were not English proficient, by serving up phony notices claiming the tenants did not actually live in their apartments and had to clear out or face eviction proceedings, the lawsuit says.
The landlord also engaged in construction-as-harassment tactics, according to the governor's office, carrying out renovations and repairs without required permits and even claiming the apartment buildings were vacant when applying for permits.
The probe into Marolda began more than two years ago, when the Tenant Protection Unit of the New York state Division of Housing and Community Renewal launched an investigation into the landlord's practices in response to complaints from community organizations speaking on behalf of Marolda tenants.
Neighborhood groups such as Asian Americans for Equality first began receiving complaints from the tenants in 2013, according to an AAFE rep, and soon noticed the pattern among the complaints stemming from Marolda-managed buildings. After speaking with other groups receiving similar complaints from tenants of the buildings, they began imploring TPU to take action.
The newly filed lawsuit calls for a court order prohibiting Marolda, and several other affiliated landlords, from engaging in such practices in the future, demands the company pay tenants who were impacted by the harassment, surrender any profits reaped from the illegal practices, and lay out new policies for employees to follow going forward while monitored by a third-party administrator.
Marolda Properties could not immediately be reached for comment.
