Harlem Tenants Sue 'Predatory' Landlord

HARLEM, NY — Nearly 40 East Harlem tenants from five buildings have filed a lawsuit against their "predatory" landlord, claiming that he likely stole their security deposits and has refused to fix imminently dangerous conditions, like padlocked fire escapes and a gaping hole in the roof.

The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday, aims to find out what landlord Isaac Kaissirer and his firm Emerald Equities did with security deposits from the five buildings' tenants and for the court to affirm that the tenants of two buildings with "rent-impairing" violations won't legally owe Kaissirer a dime until the dangerous conditions are remedied.

Many tenants in those two buildings are already on rent strike, since the violations have existed for more than six months since the city first issued violations over a year ago.

All five of the buildings are located on East 103rd Street between Park and Lexington avenues.

"Our landlord – Isaac Kassirer of Emerald Equity Group – doesn’t want to repair the issues in my apartment and my neighbors' apartments because he wants to kick us out and raise the rent," said Alexandra Mason, a tenant leader with Community Voices Heard in East Harlem.

This suit, according to the attorney, only addresses the security deposit questions and the "rent-impairing violations," and that separate habitability issues in individual apartments will be dealt with in housing court and other legal actions.

"We fight with mold, doors that lock us in from leaving our buildings, and heat that suffocates us," Mason said. "We've been living with these violations for over six months. We are here today to say: We won't take it anymore. We are organized, we are on rent strike, and we are suing."

“For far too long, these tenants have lived in deplorable conditions thanks to Emerald Equities’ utter neglect. The disrepair was deemed so serious that the city classified them as rent-impairing violations,” said Matthew Latterner, an attorney at Legal Services NYC who represents the tenants.

“Rather than treat tenants like human beings, the landlord sees them as a means to an end. In fact, we have evidence suggesting the landlord stole tenants’ security deposits as they have in their other buildings. Rather than use those stolen funds to repair dangerous violations, Emerald Equity simply lined their own pockets."

"These tenants deserve better," Latterner said, "and we will not stop fighting until they get the justice they deserve."

Kaissirer has owned the buildings since he made a splashy purchase of a 47-building portfolio in Harlem, formerly owned by investment firm Dawnay Day, for $357.5 million in 2016, according to The Real Deal. The mega-deal, which required a $300 million loan, made Kaissirer and Emerald Equities the landlords for over 1,000 apartments.

Their plan, according to The Real Deal, was to renovate the rent-stabilized apartments and list them as market rate, a common move for speculative residential real estate investors, and that by 2017, at least 250 of the apartments in Harlem had been removed from rent regulation.

"This business model is just based on human misery," Latterner told Patch. "It's harassing people out of their their longtime homes."

"Emerald Equities owe it to their tenants to improve conditions in these buildings, or face repercussions," said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams at the rally. "When tenant power is combined with the resources of the city, we can bring penalties that are more than the cost of doing business. We can’t stop at one building or owner – we need to change the systems that have permitted putting profit over people for too long."

Just last week, the city announced that the landlord who recently topped Williams' annual Worst Landlords List, Daniel Ohebshalom, now faces 60 days on Rikers Island for repeatedly failing to maintain and repair his buildings.

The 2019 rent laws, also known as the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, made it more difficult for speculative investors to cash in on legacy multifamily, and has at least partially contributed to Emerald Equities defaulting on $205 million it owes to lenders, reported The Real Deal, sending some of Kaissirer's Harlem buildings into bankruptcy in 2020.

Patch was unable to reach Kaissirer for comment on the newly filed suit.

In those bankruptcy hearings, a managing agent for Kaissirer said in an affidavit that "the Debtors generally collected security deposits from tenants but deposited the funds into the Debtors’ operating accounts instead of maintaining segregated security deposit accounts."

Those ill-allocated security deposits totalled over $470,000, the deposition sates.

At the end of the year, Kaissirer defaulted on a debt connected to a $110 million portfolio of similar rent-stabilized Bronx buildings, The Real Deal reported, sending the buildings near foreclosure. According to the real estate site, Kaissirer was in talks with their lender to hand them the keys to the buildings.

In East Harlem, the East 103rd Street tenants may have already seen signs of a similar scenario unfolding, with residents there telling Latterner that they have seen an inspector and assessor visiting the properties.

"There's easier ways in this world to make money," said Latterner.