NYC Landlord With 700 Security Violations Begins 60-Day Jail Stint
New York Metropolis’s worst landlord has begun a two-month sentence at Rikers after refusing to appropriate greater than 700 housing violations between his two Manhattan properties. Daniel Ohebshalom surrendered to authorities on Thursday, two weeks after housing court docket decide Jack Stoller issued a warrant for his arrest.
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New York City‘s worst landlord has begun a two-month sentence at Rikers after refusing to appropriate greater than 700 housing violations between his two Manhattan properties. Daniel Ohebshalom surrendered to authorities on Thursday, two weeks after housing court docket decide Jack Stoller issued a warrant for his arrest.
Choose Jack Stoller
“Probably the most placing issue informing the Court docket’s discretion is the period of the contempt continuing,” Stoller mentioned in the arrest warrant.”The Court docket held [Ohebshalom] in civil contempt as of February 2, 2023, greater than 13 months earlier than this writing.”
“The sheer quantity of extant hazardous and instantly hazardous violations bespeaks the extent of Respondents’ contempt,” he mentioned.
The New York Metropolis Division of Housing Preservation and Improvement (HPD) began investigating Ohebshalom in 2021 when the division’s Anti-Harassment Unit recognized a number of important violations at each of his properties, together with the presence of lead-based paint, widespread mildew, continual rat infestations, leaky plumbing and insufficient electrical energy provide.
Ohebshalom refused to make the wanted repairs, which resulted within the landlord racking up greater than 700 violations. Two years later, the HPD’s Different Enforcement Program (AEP) accomplished emergency repairs on defective plumbing, mildew and self-closing doorways. The AEP charged $48,000 in charges for his or her work.
Ohebshalom refused to pay the charges, which led the HPD to hunt jail time and civil penalties totaling greater than $3 million in February 2023. Ohebshalom racked up one other $1.8 million in penalties and fines by November 2023, main HPD to nominate an administrator to take management of the buildings and oversee a number of HPD-funded tasks, together with the set up of a brand new roof and new plumbing and electrical system.
AnnMarie Santiago
“Landlords who proceed to flagrantly violate the legislation and permit poor situations to persist will face the total pressure of the instruments out there to HPD to compel compliance,” Workplace of Enforcement and Neighborhood Providers (ENS) Deputy Commissioner AnnMarie Santiago mentioned. “We’re grateful that the Housing Court docket acted in response to our litigation by ordering a number of the most drastic reduction in opposition to this proprietor, the appointment of a 7A and jail.”
“HPD’s enforcement crew is right here for all New Yorkers who deserve protected, wholesome and liveable properties, and I urge tenants to know their rights and name 311 as a primary step in the direction of enhancing their dwelling situations,” she added. “Thanks to the entire Enforcement crew, and most just lately the Anti-Harassment Unit attorneys, for holding this landlord accountable, with the top aim of enhancing dwelling situations for tenants in a number of buildings all through the town.”
A number of NYC-based publications that broke the information on Thursday mentioned Ohebshalom and his lawyer refused to touch upon his jail sentence. Choose Stoller mentioned Ohebshalom might earn early launch if he begins making repairs.
Within the meantime, the tenants at one in every of his buildings are persevering with their hire strike.
“I do know tenants really feel that they’re lastly being heard,” Manhattan Authorized Providers Supervising Legal professional Ashley Viruet told Curbed. “Somebody is lastly seeing all of the struggling.”
