Bronx Tenants Sue Landlord in Supreme Court for Failure to Provide Essential Services

July 20, 2016, BRONX, N.Y.—Tenants of 1307, 1311 and 1315 Merriam Avenue are today filing a lawsuit against their landlord, David Diamond, to demand that he be held accountable for his failure to provide gas and other essential services. The lawsuit alleges that Diamond breached his obligation to provide tenants with safe and livable apartments by failing to provide them with cooking gas for more than five months, and also by regularly failing to provide heat and hot water. The tenants are represented by Bronx Legal Services (a program of Legal Services NYC), and The Legal Aid Society, with organizing support from New Settlement Apartments’ Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA). Diamond is the president and CEO of The Diamond Property Group, Inc., which manages numerous multiple dwellings throughout the Bronx and elsewhere. (Above: Merriam Avenue tenants and attorneys at a July 20th press conference announcing the lawsuit)

Press coverage: NY Daily News; El Diario

The majority of the tenants living at 1307, 1311 and 1315 Merriam are on a fixed or limited income. Many have young children, and for many tenants, English is not their first language. The gas shutoff that began in November 2015 left them with no affordable means of feeding themselves and their families for more than five months—throughout the winter and several major holidays. Rather than rectifying the problem, the landlord provided single burner hot plates and forced the tenants to pay the significantly higher electric bills generated by these inefficient and hazardous appliances. 

“When we didn’t have gas, we couldn’t eat well, or cook well,” said tenant Deysi Arias. “Those electric stoves don’t work well and I had extra charges and expenses like food and my electricity going up.”

“We had to use other means to feed our families, ones which we were uncomfortable with,” said another tenant, who did not wish to be named. “Many of us are on a fixed income and had to think every night about what to cook after coming home tired from working all day. We were not able to eat what we wanted—the electric stoves are cheap, broke easily and took hours to make a simple meal I would usually cook for my family. We were left unsure for months about when our gas would be restored.”

In addition to the gas, heat, and hot water outages, tenants have had to live with filthy hallways, staircases, and common areas; non-functioning building locks and intercoms; and vermin and cockroach infestations. Diamond also failed to properly maintain the tenants’ individual apartments, which have many substandard conditions in need of repair.

“I have been residing at 1315 Merriam Avenue for the last four years and have numerous communication issues with building management,” said tenant Geni Madden. “I have called in many complaints—no gas for 6 months, a huge rodent problem, unsanitary hallways, no heat or hot water, no water at all, the list goes on and on. All complaints ignored until CASA stepped up to help us. No human being should have to live under these conditions. The tenants of Merriam court deserve to live as human beings. We want and we deserve to live in a healthy and clean environment.”

“It is an outrage that rent-paying tenants should have to endure substandard conditions for months at a time without basic and necessary services in their homes,” said Jennifer Smith, Staff Attorney at Bronx Legal Services. “We stand with the Merriam Avenue tenants in demanding that their landlord be held accountable, and compensate them for the harm they have suffered.”

“New York City landlords are using the deprivation of essential services, like gas, to wear down long-term tenants so that they give up the fight to keep their affordable apartments,” said Jeanne Schoenfelder, Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society. “It is essential that tenants who face displacement pressures, like our clients at 1307-11-15 Merriam, resist their landlords’ efforts to push them out. Through this litigation the tenants are demanding better conditions in their homes, and accountability from their landlord for the long-term gas shutoff and chronic deficiency in other basic services.”

Tenants are demanding that Diamond immediately correct the numerous unlawful conditions in their individual apartments and common areas. They are also demanding compensation for the harm they suffered, including financial losses, while they were deprived of essential services and forced to live in substandard conditions. The lawsuit is being filed through the Tenant Rights Coalition, a partnership between Legal Services NYC and The Legal Aid Society, with funding from the city’s Human Resources Administration.

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Contact: Kate Whalen, 646-442-3654, kwhalen (at) legalservicesnyc.org