297 New York Avenue,

Brooklyn, NY 11216

Gorgeous older building with bay windows, stained glass, and large common space. W/d in unit and 1.5 bathrooms were huge perks. Location was really great.

Despite all the incredible things listed above, the stress and horrible things made it not at all worth it. The landlord was extremely shady, did not pay bills that he was supposed to - resulting in our gas (which controlled heat, hot water, and stove and oven) being shut off for an entire winter. No hot shower or even hot water to wash hands with for three freezing months. He paid for space heaters but it wasn’t nearly enough in December and January weather.

The building does not have a certificate of occupancy, and is thus not legal to live in. Discovered that only when trying to access tenants rights info during the gas shut off.

Water bills were also sent to the building saying that water would be shut off for the building because of thousands of dollars of unpaid bills. When multiple tenants asked landlord to assure us water would not be shut off and that he was taking care of it, he refused and claimed we were invading his financial privacy by asking him to assure us that our water would not be shut off. This was just a couple of months after we finally got gas back on after three months of it being disconnected because of his negligence.

Rats were in the basement and even were able to get in the front door into the mail area because there was a gap in the front door between the floor and tbottom of the door, and because there were cracks in the floor that allowed rats to come through the basement. Landlord wouldn’t do anything about it at first so tenants had to pay out of pocket for externinators and then just deduct it from the next months rent. This was hugely time consuming and because the rats had been boroughing in the basement for years and years. There were dead rats and live ones all over and the smell was horrific and also led to fly infestations that filtered up to the first floor apartment (the smell also filtered up to the first floor).

The amount of time and energy having to research and arrange exterminators and then contractors to seal cracks was immense but there was no other option as the landlord wouldn’t do anything himself.

The trash would sometimes be overflowing and not taken out to the curb on the correct days which not exasperated rat issues.

After all of this - the rats, the gas, etc, he demanded a 20% rent increase.

I was in love with the apartment when I first saw it because of its character and charm, but the landlord will let it crumble into decay and deprive tenants of basic necessities like heat and hot water while he’s at it, and you’ll have to beg for basic needs and attempt to manage the landlord since he won’t do his own job. It was a full time job to live here. Don’t move here.

Get your documents in order so that this is a legal place to live, and then actually take care of the building so that tenants aren’t living in squalor.