By Anonymous
In my work as an Investment Sales Advisor, I speak routinely with owners of NYC multifamily buildings. In developing relationships with them, I learn their aspirations and their afflictions. Contrary to perception, many of these building owners are not wealthy greedy landlords. Many of them come from immigrant or ordinary-income backgrounds and just want to build a future for their families. But instead of living their dreams, they are victims of malicious tenants who deliberately refuse to pay rent, including tenants who are gainfully employed yet still ignore their rent obligation.
NYC’s pro-tenant housing laws offer no recourse for building owners to evict non-paying tenants. Yet building owners are expected to promptly pay the mortgage, pay utilities, pay ever-increasing taxes, and other out-of-pocket expenses to maintain their assets. Some of these building owners have to work 2 and 3 jobs to stay afloat. How is it fair that they have to work, while some of their tenants occupy their property for free?
NYC’s unfair pro-tenant housing laws are spearheaded by left-wing ideology and Democratic politicians who ignore the abuse of landlords; abuse which extends to property damage, intimidation, and in many cases tenants who encourage other tenants in a building to also skip their rent obligation.
And now, the so-called ERAP (Emergency Rental Assistance Program) all but guarantees delinquent tenants will live rent-free for up to a year or more. This is because the ERAP application process has several moving pieces, each of which requires 6 or more months of processing and review. So just by merely applying for ERAP, a tenant will occupy an apartment rent-free for at least a year, while waiting for their application to be processed, and there’s nothing a landlord can do about it. ERAP was promoted as a way to help both tenants and landlords, but instead it has become a means of abuse by tenants who have learned how to take advantage of the system, to the detriment of the landlord.
The victimization of innocent and decent hardworking landlords, who thought they were doing the right thing by approving a tenant to live in their property, only to be victimized by that tenant is now the norm in all 5 boroughs of NYC. Nearly every owner of a small to midsize multifamily building has 1 or more tenants who refuse to pay rent.
Instead of rendering justice in the form of eviction and remuneration for back rent, Democratic judges and defense attorneys play landlords like a fiddle by dragging out eviction cases for years, or throwing cases out altogether. In other states it takes an average of 28 days to evict a non-paying tenant, but in the communist Democratic People’s Republic of New York it takes 2 to 5 years, or never.
Democratic tenant unions and tenant activists bolster the problem by providing support for tenants in the form of protests and intimidation, such as what happened on February 11, 2022 when a group of 70 left-wing tenant advocates descended on 964 Park Place in Crown Heights Brooklyn to form a blockade and prevent the owner from entering his own building.
This tyrannical marxist partnership between democratic politicians, judges, attorneys, activists and tenants serves to trample on the freedoms and rights of NYC building owners. And if the problem is not solved, collecting rent in NYC will become a thing of the past. Buildings, whose owners can’t afford to maintain, will decay thus causing more and more tenants to live in squalor. By hurting landlords, malicious tenants are ultimately hurting themselves.
Fortunately, the tide is turning. A group of conservative landlord organizers have begun a class action lawsuit and are determined to take their plea all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. They are calling on all NYC multifamily building owners to join their growing coalition and class action to demand evictions now.
If you or someone you know is a victim of NYC’s unfair pro-tenant housing laws, then get in touch with these organizers. They can be reached at 347-861-8753, or email nyclandlords@hotmail.com. And if you’re curious about the current value of your real estate asset, or if you’re thinking about selling your building or your land, call me for a complimentary asset evaluation.
