Community Corner
Landlords Who Harassed Tenants Will Pay $225K To Settle Lawsuit, Prosecutors Say
The Mahfar brothers are accused of repeatedly harassing their rent-stabilized tenants on the Lower East Side.
LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Two Lower East Side landlords who illegally harassed their rent-stabilized tenants are paying out $225,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the state, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Landlords Sassan “Sami” Mahfar and Sina Mahfar have repeatedly been accused of trying to drive rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartments by making their living conditions miserable. Tenants have complained that the brothers have turned off heat and hot water, started construction that caused unsafe levels of lead to circulate through the air, and hired professionals to push tenants out of the buildings they managed on the Lower East Side.
Attorney general Eric Schneiderman announced the settlement on Thursday morning. The Mahfars "undertook a deliberate campaign to coerce their rent-stabilized tenants to move out of their apartments," he said in a statement. Between 2013 and 2016, prosecutors say the brothers employed a variety of tactics to push their tenants out, including hiring a so-called "tenant relocator." The company hired by the Mahfars falsely accused residents of violating their lease, followed some tenants to work, and shouted and threatened other tenants with eviction, all in an attempt to force them to move out, according to a separate investigationby the attorney general's office.
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Some of the Mahfars' tenants were Chinese- and Spanish-speaking families who have lived in their apartments for decades before the Mahfars attempted to push them out, prosecutors said.
The bulk of the settlement money, $175,000, will go to the city's department of housing preservation and development to purchase X-ray equipment that can identify dangerous lead-based paint in buildings.
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Schneiderman used the settlement announcement as an opportunity to promote proposed legislation that he says would make it easier to press criminal charges against landlords like the Mahfars, instead of only seeking recourse through civil lawsuits.
Lead image via Shutterstock.
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