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On Tuesday, New York City’s Public Advocate office released its annual Landlord Watchlist, which identifies the most negligent residential property owners across the five boroughs. The list is intended to be a resource for tenants, public officials and other individuals to identify which of the city’s landlords regularly ignore tenant rights, housing laws and building codes (and publicly shame them in the process).
Landlords are ranked on the list by the number of open housing code violations issued to their buildings by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The report also includes any violations issued by the Department of Buildings and whether or not a tax lien has been put against a building in the past two years.
The most awful landlord on 2017’s list is Jonathan Cohen of Silvershore Properties. According to the data provided, his 19 buildings (18 in Brooklyn, one in Queens) have 1,090 open HPD violations and another 15 DOB violations. Rawle Isaacs (who ranked ninth on 2016’s Watchlist) came in second this year with 969 open HPD violations and 34 DOB violations spread across four buildings in the Bronx. You can find the full breakdown of all 100 landlords here.
If you're looking to sign a lease any time soon, be sure to make sure the building isn’t on this list. It could save you a lot of pain, anguish and renter’s remorse in 2018.
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