38 Prospect Park Southwest,

Brooklyn, NY 11215

Location is the only pro.

There have been at least 3 bed bug outbreaks since July 2021 in multiple units. The heat has been turned off or stopped working multiple times this winter. The water has been turned off multiple times or stopped working multiple times. The managers do not communicate well to the tenants, if at all.

The building is filthy except when showing apartments to unsuspecting new tenants. Filth and weird smells in the hallway, piles of garbage and the same used furniture sitting in the “courtyard” for months.

Be Better

Beautiful prewar apts in an affordable building across from park. Close to three farmers markets per week, and subway station. Great breeze from park.

Punitive landlord- the building sold right as my lease ended. I received an eviction notice under my door to vacate within 30 days. I spoke to both legal aid and free lawyer at landlord tenant court about any rights I might have (none), but also my mother was undergoing chemo and I did not really have time to deal with the issue. The new owners relentlessly harassed me and threatened with a lawyer as well as eviction court. My mother died at the beginning of the pandemic of Covid pneumonia. I asked for an extension on moving out because my mother had just passed, and the new owners refused. I had to move myself out in the middle of a pandemic with no assistance, as I had to take care of my father, and at that time did not want to risk contact with people at that time. It was the worst experience dealing with a building management in my 20 years of living in NYC. I even offered more money to stay in the apt during the pandemic so I could have time to grieve the loss of my mother in peace, and maintain some
continuity with work.
Even the Superintendent of the building was rude and incompetent. I had to be in the hospital for ten days when my mother first fell ill, and he let a radiator he had fixed in upstairs apt continue to leak. The ceiling in my apt collapsed on all my things while I was away, in the living room. It took him two weeks to fix the hole with bad plaster and sloppy paint.
The appalling part of this whole process is that there is no course for redress or negotiation. When I spoke to city housing legal aid lawyer, they said that even if I was shown to be right in court, just making an appearance in court would put my name on a permanent blacklist and I would never be able to rent an apt in the city. I have been a great tenant for all my time in NYC and it’s awful that unless I rent a rent-stabilised apt, I have no tenants rights when dealing with building management company that has no respect for their tenants.

Have some human decency- kicking tenants out who lost loved ones during a global pandemic before the eviction moratorium is bad behaviour. I am sure the apt I rented stayed empty as well for the year after.