Tenants in Illegal Condo Conversion Awarded Free Rent for Two Years
The Evelyn
June 12, 2015 — It's a tale as old as time: residents of New York City rentals often have to put up with a lot grief and aggravation. But going to court is expensive, and withholding rent until serious problems are resolved can backfire tremendously. Very rarely do you hear about residents scoring a victory, let alone a major one. Sometimes, however, shady landlords mess with the wrong tenants. Meet Marjorie Magid. She is a retired real estate agent, who has lived in the same rent-stabilized one-bedroom at The Evelyn at 101 West 78th Street since 1973. You won't be surprised, upon registering the address, that the building is being converted into a condominium. The problem, as it turns out, is not the conversion, but rather how the landlord tried to go about it. And Magid wasn't about to stay quiet about it.
The New York Times recently featured tenants, including Magid, in an article covering "the hardships they and others faced during conversions." And now, in a move that should have developers paying close and careful attention, "state prosecutors have ordered that rents be waived for 11 residents of a building on the Upper West Side… for having to put up with dusty, noisy and potentially unsafe conditions."
It gets better. The New York Times reports: "In addition, the landlord, Newcastle Realty Services, must pay more than $1.5 million in fines and legal fees for illegally inducing tenants to leave the 1886 building through buyout agreements." State Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, who represents the area, organized a letter-writing campaign to the attorney general about conditions at The Evelyn. The tenants believe her efforts were instrumental in getting the attorney general to halt construction at the building in January.
As for Newcastle Realty Services, it seems to be abandoning ship. According a spokesperson for the project, reports The Times, the development team, whose president is Margaret Streicker Porres, "plans to sell its position in 101 West 78th Street to funds managed by GTIS."
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