Hellhole
Pros
10th st is one of the best blocks in Park Slope. The apartment is spacious and it has outdoor space. Absentee landlord, so as long as you pay your rent, nobody will bother you. One tenant breeds large dogs in their apartment, other tenants freely smoke pot—anything goes.
Cons
The plumbing is probably original from 100 years ago. The ceilings in almost every room leak. Rusty water and debris drip down on you as you shower and when it rains, prepare the buckets in the bedroom. When the people upstairs flush their toilet, water will explode like a geyser out of your toilet. There is an infestation of mice inside and subway sized rats outside, so forget about enjoying the backyard. The restaurant nextdoor has sewage issues, so the back room frequently smells like low-tide. The apartment was once occupied by people who owned a menagerie of animals and the center room still reeks of urine soaked into the floorboards. And landlord is aware, but doesn’t seem to care. If repairs are necessary, expect to hire your own repairman and deduct from upcoming rent, or wait ages for the landlord to hire someone incompetent to do a halfass job. Once the boiler needed to be fixed and it was covered in asbestos. Two day workers showed up with surgical masks and garbage bags to remove the “white stuff.” When we hired an electrician to fix the broken ceiling light, he disconnected several outlets because he said they were major fire hazards and said he was surprised that the building didn’t burn down. Note that there are transient renters that stay in the basement. These people come and go at all hours of the night, smoke, have loud arguments, leave garbage on the front steps, etc… but also live in horrible conditions. The basement frequently floods and these people are living in six inches of water. Note that when the basement flood, the rest of the building is inundated with water bugs, roaches, and vermin.
Advice to the owners
At a bare minimum, the building needs a new roof, updated plumbing, and updated electricity. It is only a matter of time before there is a major structural collapse because of rotting or an electrical fire. Someone is going to get seriously hurt if you don’t make this building safe.
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