Bronx Landlord Leaves Tenants Without Gas For Entire Year: Suit

THE BRONX, NY — Residents of a Bronx apartment building are suing their landlord for leaving them without cooking gas for a year in what their lawyers call a ploy to force them from their rent-stabilized homes.

Tenants of the 38-unit building at 2833-2835 Decatur Ave. in Jerome Park haven't had gas to cook with since April 2017, their lawyers said. A lawsuit filed Thursday in Bronx Housing Court accuses the building's landlords — Filippo Milio, John Coleman and Decatur Ave LLC — of failing to fix the outage while ignoring leaks, roaches and rodents.

"It’s a strategy to have tenants move out, to just get fed up and leave," said Russell Crane, a Legal Aid Society staff attorney who's representing the tenants.

The 10 residents and the building's tenants association are also suing Trion Real Estate Management, the building's management firm led by Milio's son, Carmelo Milio. Coleman used to work as a property manager for the company, Carmelo Milio said.

The lawsuit seeks an order forcing the landlords and Trion to fix the problems, pay damages to the tenants and pay civil penalties.

Trion has completed fixes in several tenants' apartments and is working on plans for more, Carmelo Milio said in an email.

But without cooking gas, the tenants face the "huge burden" of having to get meals from restaurants or buy food they can cook without a stove, Crane said.

It's especially tough for seniors to prepare meals that fit their dietary needs, and for parents who have to fix family dinners on electric burners which are far more expensive than gas appliances, said Zoe Kheyman, another Legal Aid lawyer representing the tenants.

"They’re seeing their ConEd bills go up," Kheyman said.

The lawsuit argues the lack of cooking gas constitutes harassment aimed at pushing tenants from the building — a strategy that could end up profiting the landlords, the tenants' lawyers said.

The building's apartments are rent-stabilized, meaning the owner can only hike the rent when a tenant leaves, Crane said. The protracted gas outage hasn't stopped the landlords from trying to rent apartments to new residents, he said.

"Every single time one of the tenants leaves it makes the apartment that they’re leaving less and less affordable for the next tenants," Kheyman said.

City records indicate the landlords have a history of negligence.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development has slapped the building with 250 violations since 2005. Nearly 50 are Class C violations — the most serious type — for ceiling leaks, faulty doors, broken plaster and other issues.

City officials placed the building in its Alternative Enforcement Program in January, meaning HPD could eventually step in to make repairs itself and bill the owner.

The owners apparently tried to address the gas problem once last year but didn't get a permit for the work, leading to an $818 fine from the Environmental Control Board.

Carmelo Milio said most of the HPD violations at the site have been fixed. Trion hopes to have the gas back on "within a month or two," he said.

The company still needs access to some tenants' apartments to tell its engineer what equipment is inside and finalize plans for repairs with the Department of Buildings, he said.

"We are here to work with the few tenants on the lawsuit and would welcome a call to gain access and address their additional concerns," Milio said in his email.

(Lead image: Tenants of this Bronx building say they've gone without cooking gas for a year. Image from Google Maps)