NYC's 4 'Worst Landlords' Of 2022 All Own Upper Manhattan Buildings

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — The "100 Worst Landlords In NYC" list for 2022 was just released by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and the four worst ranked property owners all own buildings in Washington Heights or Inwood.

This year's version of the list released on Tuesday has a total of 626 buildings that have racked up more than 69,000 open Housing Preservation and Development violations between December 2021 and November 2022.

In an upsetting reveal for Upper Manhattan, the four worst ranked landlords for 2022, meaning those with the highest number of average open HPD violations, all have uptown buildings they currently manage.

Here are the Upper Manhattan buildings owned among the four worst landlords in New York City, according to the Public Advocate's Office.

No. 1 Worst: Johnathan Santana

• 709 W. 170th St.: 21 units, 355 HPD violations, 3 DOB violations, 0 evictions in the past two years.
• 705 W. 170th St.: 21 units, 306 HPD violations, 0 DOB violations, 0 evictions in the past two years.

No. 2 Worst: Brian Ritter

• 4117 Broadway (Near West 174th Street): 46 units, 127 HPD violations, 0 DOB violations, 0 evictions in the past two years.

No. 3 Worst: David Tennenbaum

• 558 W. 189th St.: 21 units, 78 HPD violations, 1 DOB violation, 0 evictions in the past two years.

No. 4 Worst: Sima Abdavies

• 2304 Amsterdam Ave. (Near West 174th Street): 19 units, 126 HPD violations, 0 DOB violations, two evictions in the past two years.

Santana's building at 709 W. 170th St. had the 18th highest number of violations of any privately owned property in New York City during the studied time period.

"This year’s #1 worst landlord, Jonathan Santana, had more open violations than any other landlord in the history of the list, with an average of 2,980 open violations across 15 buildings on the watchlist – more than double the average number from last year’s worst landlord," Public Advocate Williams tweeted.

The Public Advocate's office releases the "worst landlords" list every year as a watchdog measure.

This year, it appeared that private landlords racked up housing violations at a staggering level.
"Across the entire list, there were a staggering 69,018 violations, nearly a 30% increase from the previous year," Williams tweeted. "Conditions continue to deteriorate even as the median rent in the city has massively increased."

But it should be noted that the 100 worst landlords listed are only the private landlords.
The city itself — NYCHA — also let conditions deteriorate, with 673,990 open work orders, Williams said.

"The city itself remains the overall worst landlord in New York City," Williams tweeted.

You can check out the full list for yourself — here.

Patch reporters Matt Troutman and Peter Senzamici contributed to this report.