SBLS Attorney Weighs in on Mega-Landlord in City Limits Article

South Brooklyn Legal Services Director of Litigation Ed Josephson was interviewed for a recent City Limits
article about a class-action lawsuit against the Pinnacle Group, a
massive landlord that owns dozens of buildings across in New York. Pinnacle has been accused of using various tactics, including increasing
rents on rent-controlled apartments, to edge tenants out of apartments
and then increase prices.

Powell’s experience was not a series of isolated incidents,
advocates say, but a classic case of predatory equity, a common
landlord scheme that they hope will soon be restricted by the Pinnacle
tenants' landmark lawsuit. In the scheme, real estate investors buy
rent-controlled or stabilized buildings, then pressure the tenants –
primarily through harassment and failing to make repairs – to vacate
them. After a tenant leaves, the landlord rents or sells the vacant
unit at a higher price.

"These hedge-fund backed landlords that
acquired huge numbers of subprime apartments gambled on their ability
to raise rents and evict low-income tenants," says Edward Josephson,
director of litigation at South Brooklyn Legal Services. "Either the
gamble pays off and they displace tenants or they don't succeed and
their business model collapses."

Read the full story at City Limits magazine.