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An update on a story that's in the "The Rent is Too Damn Low" (from the perspective of the landlord) department: A landlord who terrorized a rent-controlled tenant pleaded guilty to illegally evicting the 87 year-old man; but the landlord Dominic Galofaro won't serve any jail time - just three years probation and 200 hour of community services. Galofaro had changed the locks and thrown out the furniture of retired cook Wah Hop Eng from his 89th Street and Third Avenue apartment in August. End has lived there for 46 years, and enjoys a $150/month rented. Well, enjoyed, as he's now living with a son in the Boston area since Eng's scared of Galofaro; Eng, though, does still have the lease. The original charges against Galofaro of burglary and grand larceny were dropped because there was no evidence of where Eng's furniture and belongings are. There is still Eng's $13 million civil suit against Galofaro - let's hope for a tenant victory all the way!
Landlord Gets No Jail Time For Kicking Out Tenant
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A friend told me of police abuse of a homeless person this morning on the 1 at 168 st. Apparently,
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Well, if Eng is too scared to live there, I'd be happy to sublet it from him. Heck, I'd be willing to pay him double his $158 rent. Although the first thing I'd probably do would be to install one hell of a security system against that landlord. Preferably with an electrified doorknob, tear gas canisters, Indiana Jones-style spring-loaded spikes, etc.
With all of the money you would be saying you could probably hire your own security guards to keep the landlord out.
Doesn't it strike anyone how unfair it is for someone to pay $150 for rent while the rest of us are paying $1500? Granted this tenant is an old man, but these tenants are actually making prices higher for the rest of us. Why does an 87 year old man need to live in a prime area like 89th and 3rd?!?! I'm not saying we should kick old men out on the street, but we should understand what a huge price we all pay to keep the elderly in Manhattan when, more often than not, they CAN afford to pay a higher rent and/or live somewhere more affordable very happily.
...plus, I know we all hate landlords, but it is pretty messed up for the city to force someone to take a loss on an apartment they own by artificially keeping a tenants rent down and not offer to compensate them for that.
If taxpayers paid for the difference between rent controlled rents and market value, Wah Hop Eng would still be happily living on the upper east side. Of course, we're all too self-righteous to pony up for rules we force the city to make.
Is THAT the kind of rent that these rent control people are always complaining about?
Look up what illegal work the landlord did on the building at the NYC DOB site. that's a no no, mr. galofaro.
they could find 911 victims in SI but they can't find an old man's furniture, yeah right.
It's the landlord's own stupid fault for not raising the rent according to rent control/stabilization guidelines over the years. Methinks he could have gotten more than $158/month had he gone about it in the proper manner.
From what I understand, Hop Eng's brother also lives in the building. Hmmm. And he didn't notice his brother's shit getting moved out by the landlord?
Other rumor I heard is that Mr. Eng seldom LIVED in the apartment before the illegal eviction took place, and instead spent most of his time in Boston living with his son and daughter-in-law.
If Eng still has a valid lease for that space, and if he seldom occupied that space to begin with, how will he prove, even to a sympathetic civil jury, $13 million in damages? I'm not sure even the landlord's guilty plea could counter the reality of Mr. Eng's rare physical presence in and his still-preserved legal right to the apartment.
I wonder what his brother pays in rent if he does indeed live in the same building.
Inquiring minds want to know . . . operators are standing by.
Mario, this man had been living there for 47 years, that's the end of WWII! I don't understand your viewpoint. He doesn't need to live in a prime area like that? Well, that's not really his fault, is it? He didn't happen to realize one day that he had rent control privileges and decided to pick the trendiest spot he could to screw everyone else. You are directing anger and jealousy at the wrong person. If you want to talk about unfair, think about the thousands of people like Mr. Eng who are forced to move out of places they've lived in for decades, LONG before NY became so popular with yuppies willing (or foolish enough) to spend half of their paycheck or more on rent each month. Entire neighborhoods all over the city are being depopulated of their original tenants and replaced with (usually) white young people.
.. and we don't pay a huge price to keep the elderly in Manhattan. Would you like to ship off all the old people who can't pay to some remote island and replace them with young people? As another poster said in an earlier version of this story, him moving out and being replaced by a $1500 tenant won't make everyone's rent $50 cheaper. Others suggested that Garafalo (who is part of a real estate company so he's no noob) knew the laws and just didn't care. He had all the information about the tenants and their rental situation. If he didn't want the risk, he didn't have to buy.
There are laws in place to protect people who are so far off the meter on the poverty scale. Mr. Eng is one of them. We have to ensure that those without money are not without rights. I don't oppose senior citizen discounts for stuff like movies, Metrocards, healthcare, or rent control. They're old and have worked their whole lives! They deserve a break. We should devalue them as people.