145 Rockaway Avenue,

Brooklyn, NY 11233

Neighbors were nice

I wish I knew this before I signed a lease with this landlord. Putting this here to hopefully save the next potential tenant from what we went through.
The landlord acts as the super and building manager but he doesn't want to spend any money on the house so he will try to blame any problems on the tenant and avoid fixing any problems.
He defrauded us when we first moved in by forcing us to set up a national grid account for the entire house (3 apartments in the building). We were stuck with a bill for 400$/month for heat and hot water, and consequently he did not pay for any heat or hot water for the entire house while we were tenants. We tried to fight these charges but ultimately we were responsible as our names were on the account. National Grid told us to sort it out with the landlord which was laughable knowing this mans character.
We had roaches and mice and were forced to live with them for more than 6 weeks as we tried to get the landlord to bring in professional exterminators.
To make matters worse, the landlord is wholly unapproachable. He will shout, intimidate, gaslight, and talk around in circles in a regular conversation, so imagine how much worse it was when he did not want to hear about the issues we were experiencing.
He saw a bicycle in the hallway once on a Saturday morning, and continuously buzzed our bell, then ran up the stairs and started pounding aggressively on the door to tell us to move the bike. It was an unsettling experience as we were 2 young females living there.
These are just some examples of his behavior.
There are no bins outside, and no private mailbox. The landlord comes during weekdays when there are less tenants around and looks through the mail, taking anything of interest to him - he also gets his own mail delivered there.
He received multiple notices from Coned threatening to cut off the power to the house because he wasn't paying the bill for the hallway lighting. This man is as shady as they come. He should not be allowed to be a landlord.
Getting packages delivered is impossible if you don't work from home all day. He refuses to give the mail people a key.
As a lone female renting, it is not a safe environment. You will be taken advantage of. Be grateful if you found this out before starting a lease with the landlord and don't put yourself through this!

Give up being a property owner