‘If You Don’t Like The Conditions, Then Leave’: Life In Sheepshead Bay’s Worst Slum

A busted elevator, garbage piling in the halls, leaking pipes, crumbling ceilings and days without heat and hot water. These are some of the complaints made by tenants living at 2630 Ocean Avenue, a six-story apartment building located at the intersection of Avenue V.

The property, owned by landlord Mark Rubin, has racked up more building code violations and complaints than any other residential building in Sheepshead Bay and ranks 10th in Brooklyn on Public Advocate Letitia James Landlord Watchlist. The list, published last week, ranks the most neglected properties in New York City based on the number of violations they received.

James’ report shows the building has received 239 violations from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 40 Department of Buildings Complaints, and three housing court petitions during the last year. Almost two-thirds of the citations by the city have been Class B, or hazardous, violations. The number of penalties was even higher the previous year. The property received 362 HPD violations in 2014, according to the report.

Jacquelyn Kolb, who lives on the building’s first floor, said maintenance requests she made to the management company were met with scorn.

“I was told multiple times on the phone: ‘If you don’t like the conditions, then leave,'” Kolb said. “If something wasn’t working, if the door wasn’t locking correctly and people were just coming in and bums were sleeping on the staircases, they said, ‘if you don’t like it, you can leave.'”

A call to Rubin’s office requesting comment on this story was not returned.

Kolb said she is currently battling her landlord in housing court. She refuses to pay rent for April and May because her apartment had no hot water. According to the Rent Guidelines Board, which regulates housing in New York City, tenants have the right to claim a rent abatement if their landlord fails to provide hot water.

“I was trying to negotiate with them because there was no hot water. They said: ‘No deal. Pay everything,'” she explained. “They sent the manager banging on my door at 11 in the morning to talk about rent problems. He’s a big guy. It was like he was trying to scare me.”

Kolb also said the building’s elevator was out of service for eight months until it was fixed this summer.

“There were a lot of old people who had to use their walkers to go upstairs. It was terrible,” she said.

A review of property records from the last decade shows the building has accumulated thousands of dollars in fines for failing to maintain the elevator. The owner has also been penalized for problems with the boiler. And tenants have filed scores of complaints with the Department of Buildings.

Ayaz Shah, who lives with his family on the fourth floor, said it took months of complaints to get his landlord to address a leaky pipe in the apartment above him. The water had torn a hole in the ceiling of his bathroom and when the issue was finally addressed, Shah said the building’s superintendent simply smeared some plaster over the hole, which didn’t fix the problem.

“You can still see the signs of the water there and eventually the water is just going to make another hole,” he said.

Shah also said his landlord refused to do anything about a group of teenagers who gather in the stairwell to smoke pot.

“At night, you can smell that weed all over the building,” he said. “We told the landlord to do something about it and he has not been doing anything.”

2630 Ocean Avenue isn’t the only property owned by Mark Rubin to land on the public advocate’s list. With 324 HPD violations in 2015, the Rubin-owned property at 1985 Ocean Avenue, in Midwood, is number three on the list of Brooklyn’s most neglected properties. The bulk of the building’s violations and complaints recorded in property records are also related to the elevator and boiler.

One complaint made in 2014 claimed there was “brown water coming out of the hot water pipe. Water in shower possibly be contaminated due to causing burning sensation whenever it goes in eyes.”

Shah said that his landlord just didn’t seem to care about the quality of life for people renting in his buildings.

“These situations are in all the apartments. There is water leaking in all the apartments. He just doesn’t care about them,” he said.