Last month, a bill to prevent building owners from illegally converting apartments into hotel rooms passed the state Senate, seemingly paving the way to put seedy landlords and hustlers out of business. But more than a dozen out-of-towners looking for a dream summer in NYC fell victim to two scam artists in Williamsburg, and exactly what that bill was meant to curtail. more ›

Under current state law, you can be paying your rent on time every month, and one day come home to find that you've got less than 10 days to vacate your apartment because the landlord defaulted on the mortgage. State Senator Jeff Klein says nearly 600 New York City tenants are being evicted every month because of foreclosures, and they're usually the last ones to know about it because banks are not required to inform them. more ›

The Daily News scored an exclusive account of life inside the Economakis building on East 3rd Street-- their intern Barry Paddock happens to be one of the tenants getting evicted: "In eviction papers, they laid out a plan to combine our cramped but beloved rent-stabilized apartments into a suburban-style mansion. Apartments on my floor would be demolished and replaced by a hanging walkway overlooking their new two-story living room." Bonus fact: the Economakis family paid less than $1M for the building in 2003-- about the cost of a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan today. more ›

A class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court yesterday, alleging that real estate firm "Brown Harris Stevens Brooklyn LLC (BHS) and its senior vice president and two real estate agents discriminate against families with children attempting to rent apartments in Brooklyn." more ›