Violent abusive landlords (on-site)
Pros
The building has some beautiful features and is spacious.
Cons
A lot of things are old and falling apart. There are a lot of leaks. The biggest con is the landlords (husband and wife) who live next door on the property. They regularly enter the building uninvited. During the brief time I was subletting they approached me aggressively on three separate occasions (twice in the apartment, once in front of the apartment) justifying their behavior with baseless accusations of wrongdoing and other nonsense reasons. I was forced to cease living on the property suddenly (the day after Christmas, ending a 6-month sublet agreement after 2 months)— after my 3rd experience of the landlord’s violence—resulting in homelessness, jeopardizing the safety of my client and of my new job, and costing thousands of dollars. The details of that interaction, as reported to 311 and The Tenant Harassment Protection Taskforce are below: “I was in my first session with a new psychotherapy client (I was staring a new job proving therapy via tele-health) Suddenly, I heard very loud banging on the door. The banging was so loud and hard that I could see the door moving, and my client could hear the sound through the video cam. Therapy sessions are supposed to be confidential, so I ignored the banging. And it persisted. I asked my client to wait, and went to open the door, blocking the entrance with my body. Standing extremely close to the entrance was John Ocasio (landlord) who demanded to come into my room immediately and "check the roof for leaks." I told him no, he could not. He insisted and tried to force his way in. With neither of us touching each other I repeated that he would NOT come in. I added there were no leaks and he could come back in 30 minutes. He grew more aggressive and said he was coming in, continuing to raise his voice. Meanwhile, my client was hearing all of this. I told him to wait and closed the door. I informed my client I had to deal with a matter and would need to end the session and "call" right back. I opened the door again and Mr. Ocasio stormed into the room, looked around, and walked right back out, exclaiming, "see I only needed a few seconds." I explained to him adamantly that his behavior was super inappropriate and illegal, and informed him that I would report him for such behavior and if he engaged in it again would be dealing with tenant lawyers. He laughed and said he could do what he wanted. I explained that he could not, and warned him again to respect our rights in the apartment, specifying that he CANNOT enter the prememis any time he wants. He then claimed to not know who I was. This is an ongoing lie that Mr. Ocasio and his wife keep claiming every time they approach me aggressively. The tenants here received approval to sublet rooms prior to advertising them, and have at least twice met with Mr. & Mr. Ocasio about this matter since I have been here—each time in connection with threatening harassment of me. The last thing Mr. Ocasio did before leaving was to begin speaking mock Spanish to me in a mocking tone, laughing and telling me to calm down, that he would do what he wants. This took place at around 3:30pm EST today 12/21/20. I was forced to run damage control with my client, and will have the supervisors at my clinic check in with her tomorrow. I work with highly vulnerable people and absolutely cannot expose them to this form of violent harassment. This is a new job at my therapy clinic and this appointment was my first with this client.”
Advice to the owners
Get anger management treatment; learn to regulate your emotions; take classes on professional behavior; stop entering renter’s space uninvited; fix the broken cabinets in the kitchen; fix the leaky tubs and roof.
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