When Developers Damage Homes, Owners Face Tough Battles

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — Michelle Dutton’s walls crumbled, sinkholes opened up in her yard and her driveway cracked. Evette Simmons came home to discover a wall of her brownstone had been painted black. Elgin Elias’ house is shifting on its foundations.

The three women say developers started doing construction next door, and they watched conditions in their homes deteriorate. Despite reporting the damage to the city, hiring lawyers and pleading with developers to stop, Dutton, Simmons and Elgin are all still waiting for their property to be repaired.

Dutton, 59, who has owned her red brick house on East 31st Street near Church Avenue, in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, for 31 years, said cracks first appeared in her driveway in 2016 as construction workers tore down the two-family house next door.

“The damage is extensive, I think my yard could collapse,” Dutton said. “That’s why I’m upset.”

Developer Joseph Roubeni had planned to build a four-story apartment building on the lot, but stopped construction when Dutton reported an estimated $50,000 in damages to the Department of Buildings, city records show.

Roubeni, of the firm Astral Weeks, did not immediately respond to Patch’s request for comment.

Dutton spent the following year going back and forth between lawyers and the developer and finally, in 2018, Roubeni produced an agreement to repair her home, she said.

But the Brooklyn homeowner is hesitant to sign because the developers wants to do the repairs themselves and Dutton said doesn’t trust them.

“They don’t want to give me money, they want to do the work,” said Dutton. “But seeing how it’s being done, I’m not in favor of signing this agreement.”

“I really don’t know what action I can take,” Dutton added, saying she cannot afford to repair the building that has been her home for the past three decades. “They really make me want to leave.”

Leaving isn’t a possibility for Evette Simmons, 59, who owns a red brick building on Hancock Street, in Bed-Stuy, a wall of which a developer neighbor painted black.

"The community, including myself, are tired of the disrespect," Simmons said when Patch broke the story in April. "I think God chose me as the vessel to put a lid on this crap."

Simmons has been waiting for more than a year for Ozone Development LLC to hand over the thousands of dollars she estimates it will cost to repaint the side of her building, she said.

Patch also tried to reach Ozone Development management for comment, but was unsuccessful.

Simmons launched an online petition, filed numerous DOB complaints, hired attorneys and even protested outside the developer’s building in Grapeneck, Queens, she said.

Last summer, a Brooklyn small claims court judge finally ordered the developers to pay Simmons $4,500 to repaint her wall, but the payment deadline passed and she said she’s still waiting for a check.

“It’s still not resolved,” said Simmons. “They refuse to pay.”

The house has been in Simmons' family for generations. Her great-grandfather Moses J. Cobb walked 500 miles on the underground railroad to escape slavery, became the NYPD’s first African American police officer and provided his son the chance to buy the Bed-Stuy building.

Simmons fears her history is why she’s struggling against developers now.

“People of color don’t have the resources they have,” Simmons said. “Are they targeting us? Yes.”

As proof, Simmons recounted her year-long struggle to repair her home, the countless late-night calls from developers who want to buy her out and the situation of another Bed-Stuy woman, Elgin Elias, whose house is shifting in its foundations.

Elias, 69, has been reporting fractures in her building's foundations, enormous cracks in hers walls and doorways hanging on an angle since 2014 when the construction company M Remodeling Corp began working next door, city records show.

The development going up at 438 Herkimer St. – an eight-story, six family building – has racked up 14 violations, 29 complaints and two stop-work orders since construction began, DOB records show.

"They damaged my house so bad," Elias said. "And they're fighting me."

Her story caught the attention of a local documentary filmmaker, Nadeem Salaam of The E4F Strikeforce, who is currently investigating.

"They didn't shore up my house, they didn't put up any crack monitors," Elias told filmmakers. "They didn't do anything to protect my home."

Elias told the documentary makers the developer found her on the street after she filed her complaints with the DOB.

"I hope it's the biggest mistake you ever make in your life," she recalled him saying. "Expect to get more cracks."

Elias also told Our Time Press the developer threatened to sue her for $350,000 in an attempt to force her out of her home. Patch was unable to contact M Remodeling Corp.

Elias, who has been living in Bed-Stuy for 19 years, said she has not yet been paid for the damages to her brownstone.

"With my home still in jeopardy, I would like to know," she asked, "who is responsible for taking care of my home?"

Photos by Kathleen Culliton