Rent-Stabilized Tenants: Owner Neglects Us So We'll Move

Hey, speaking of decreasing affordable housing stock: Rent-stabilized tenants in the recently re-branded Flatbush Gardens complex — a massive 59-building development in East Flatbush once known as the Vanderveer Estates — claim the owner of the property has intentionally shirked on repairs in an effort to push out long-time residents and replace them with market-rate renters. "You call, but they never come to fix anything," one tenant told the Daily News. "But when someone moves out, they renovate everything."

Tenants contend that their complaints about faulty electric sockets and cracks in floors have gone ignored for more than a year. A spokesman for Clipper Equity — which purchased the 10,000-resident complex for $140-million in 2005 — insisted that the company's "maintenance team purposefully and successfully works through all repair requests," and that the landlord recently spent $10 million on upgrades including new elevators, intercom systems and playgrounds. Tenants said those changes were merely cosmetic.

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By Ben Muessig in News on October 15, 2009 3:36 PM

Comments [rss]

Rick Miaw

Flatbush Gardens has an on-site full time maintenance team dedicated to tenant concerns that works five days a week to handle routine requests and around the clock for emergency situations. The article claims that new elevators, boiler system and working front door intercoms are “cosmetic” improvements. This grossly underestimates the quality of life and security improvements undertaken by Clipper Equity for its 10,000 tenants. In addition to the daily repairs Clipper Equity has made over $10 million of capital improvements to the property.

Rick Miaw

Flatbush Gardens Leasing Manager 718-564-1822

carbomb

i rented a coop unit i couldnt sell to a nice young couple - 10 years later when i had to evict them, it was a squalid shithole. They didnt own it, so why paint, clean, change a rug, fixture, anything.........

Running Man

Rent control is a form of socialism. Ever wonder why there has been a shortage of apts in NYC since 1950? It can betraced to rent control which serves to artifically restrict the supply of apts.

Snoopy

I would blame everything on mayor Bloomberg regarding this issue. If it wasn't for affordable, low income, rent stabilized, rent controlled housing none of this would have occurred.

Of course the real estate taxes on everyone else that actually owns their own property would go up to support this nonsense.

If you want cheap rents move to Newark or Camden.

TrippinJoJo

wear a bullet proof vest and duck for cover.

JMH

If your landlord sucks, move. Nobody is forcing you to stay in that apartment.

Gwinny

They show commercials nonstop on NY1 but even when they try to put a gloss on 'em, the places look like crap! Also the voiceover says "Flatbush Gardens is close to everything, including Manhattan." I call shenanigans -- the dump is nowhere near Manhattan. So stupid!

Mglocks

It sounds like my landlord.

Sleepy

Wait no way - so you're saying that the building owner won't give you new appliances and dump a ton of money onto your apartment when you're paying $300 but then will do so once the apartment rents out at market prices? Crazy!

ckl

I came across this place when browsing apartments a while ago. There are a ton of horror stories floating around in reviews on the internet (eg., http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/NY-Brooklyn-Flatbush-Gardens-887888.html), which I found kind of amazing as I didn't realize people even reviewed apartments.

Mr. Shankly

Nice or cheap. Pick one.

LHov

This sounds a lot like Algin management.

just saying

lol - Algin Mgt. is the stuff of legends. It was started by the old man Albert Ginsberg and was later taken over by his wacky lawyer son, Larry Ginsberg.

There are many horror stories about them but one of the best has to do with the apartment tower they built in Manhattan that was 12 stories taller than the zoning law allowed. In the end, they were forced to lop off the extra 12 stories.