EAST HARLEM — A city housing agency is suing a, East 117th Street landlord to force him to correct a host of violations and pay thousands of dollars in fines a week after a DNAinfo New York report about the property.
The litigation from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development comes a few weeks after residents of 231 E. 117th St. took their landlord, George Zayas, to court claiming the building was rat-infested and hasn't had consistent cooking gas since last 2016.
The agency is demanding that Zayas fix more than 130 outstanding citations, including 26 "immediately hazardous" violations.
HPD also wants Zayas to fork over more than $7,800 in fines, according to Vito Mastaciuolo, the agency's deputy commissioner for enforcement and neighborhood services.
Mastaciuolo told resident Marie Miranda, one of several who sued their landlord on Sept.8, about the city's lawsuit during a town hall on Sept. 28.
“We actually filed a lawsuit in housing court this week against your landlord," Mastaciuolo told her at the time.
ArchRock Management, the building’s management company, did not immediately return a message seeking comment about the violations and lawsuits.
