NEW YORK: Authorities brought criminal charges against a landlord they say drove tenants out of rent-regulated apartments by doing construction and demolition at his building and shutting off the heat.
The indictment charges Brooklyn landlord Daniel Melamed with three counts of unlawfully evicting tenants from rent-regulated apartments, endangering the welfare of a child and filing a false document.
Authorities also accused the engineer he hired to oversee construction on the 14-unit building, Pirooz Soltanizadeh, of filing a false document. Both pleaded not guilty.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the Crown Heights landlord’s arrest was the first to come from their joint task force launched in February to inspect properties that have been the subjects of harassment complaints.
“New York’s real estate boom is generating jobs. It is creating revenue. But it also has put thousands of tenants at risk to unscrupulous landlords,” Schneiderman said outside the building. “Bad landlords have an incredible incentive under the current laws to get rent-regulated tenants out of their buildings by any means necessary, and harassment is reaching new lows.”
They have multiple pending investigations, Schneiderman said. De Blasio said there have been too many abusive landlords in the city.
“Too many times they’ve gotten away with abusive actions toward tenants,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state law for the city’s rent regulations has expired with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders in Albany trying to negotiate an extension and possible revisions. -AP
