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Brooklyn Tenants Sue 'Scam Artist' Landlord For Allegedly Illegal And Hazardous Gas Hook-Up
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jan 23, 2020
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Nathan Tempey/Gothamist
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jan 23, 2020
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A notorious landlord in Brooklyn is getting sued by his tenants for failing to provide consistent cooking gas since at least April 2018 and for setting up an illegal gas connection at the building, a new lawsuit claims.
Yaniv "Ben" Erez is accused of allowing a group of tenants in Prospect Lefferts Gardens to live in "immediately hazardous conditions" without adequate cooking gas, heat and hot water, according to a lawsuit filed late December against the infamous landlord, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Department of Buildings, and the National Grid.
Tenants at 483 Rogers Avenue "have been without consistent gas, heat and hot water since about April 2018, when National Grid disconnected [their] gas services after finding an illegal flex bypass connection, which upon information and belief is the same type of condition that caused the 2nd Avenue gas explosion in 2015." That 2015 gas explosion was the result of an illegal gas hook-up that left two dead, more than a dozen seriously injured, and recently landed three in prison for manslaughter.
"Our issue here is that this landlord is clearly an unreliable person based on the fact that there has been several cases against him where he has lost his real estate license. He was found to be in criminal contempt of a court case," Sunny Noh, a supervising attorney for the housing law unit at the Legal Aid Society representing tenants, told Gothamist.
Erez—who also owns a cigar company—has been called a "serial scam artist" by a judge in a former housing case. He was previously wanted for criminal contempt for damaging a Warwick Avenue building to prevent a tenant from moving back, until he was extradited from Florida in August 2018 when the Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez charged him for stealing more than $8,000 from tenants.
On Rogers Avenue, Erez has previously been accused of cutting off electricity for 10 days and the heat for nearly a month in 2015.
Noh said problems escalated in April 2018, about when an illegal gas connection was set up. National Grid found the illegal gas connection, and gas services were shut off. Some apartments have no gas service while others have intermittent service, suggesting additional illegal connections have been set up and shut off in recent years, Noh said. Last month, nearly all gas meters were seized from the building by National Grid, according to the lawsuit. HPD records show 118 open housing code violations at the building.
"It is imperative for us to have and the court to have a record of who's fault it is and what it is that needs to be done," Noh said.
DOB and HPD declined to comment on pending litigation.
National Grid's spokesperson Karen Young said in a statement: "Safety of the public and our employees is our top priority. Gas service can be restored to the building once all violations are corrected and approved by the Department of Buildings and the account is in good standing."
A management company listed in public records for the property owner no longer manages the Rogers Avenue building.
Other efforts to reach Erez were unsuccessful.
Tagged
lawsuit
landlord
brooklyn
Sydney Pereira
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