A RESIDENT claimed he was being pushed out of his apartment by his new landlord and new neighbor.
Francis Roberts, 78, believed that he was wanted out due to his $450-a-month rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn, New York.
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Roberts has lived in the same building for over 20 years, in the growingly popular Crown Heights area, but claimed that his treatment has changed since the property was sold to its new owner, 972 Park Place LLC, according to the New York Times.
He filed a lawsuit against the owners and its president Yehuda Gruenberg for “a long pattern of illegal harassment practices designed to push him out and remove the rent-stabalized status from his unit," according to court documents.
Roberts also accused his new neighbor Aaron Akaberi of being part of the attempt to move him out.
The lawsuit accused Akaberi of bringing in unhoused drug users to live in and around the building in tents.
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He added that two portable toilets that had been placed in front of the home had caused a health hazard by leaking raw sewage around the unit.
Roberts also accused Akaberi of playing loud music, which sometimes exceeded 100 decibels, which forced him to spend large parts of his day outside of his house.
He also claimed that an unknown green liquid dripped through the kitchen ceiling of his basement apartment and he claimed he was certain it came from Akaberi’s upstairs apartment.
Roberts said he would not move from his apartment, despite supposedly receiving offers from the owners to move to a new rent-regulated apartment rent-free while repairs were made.
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He said that he believed it was a scheme to turn the place into a market-rent apartment which he said would price him out.
The average monthly rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights is $2,650, as of September 27, according to Zumper.
Roberts, who retired from a clerical job at a Manhattan law firm, filed the lawsuit through Brooklyn Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition.
A member of Brooklyn Legal Services, Liam McSweeney, said: “They took the harassment to another level.”
Yehuda Gruenberg, through his lawyer Julius Toonkel, denied the allegations of harassment.
Toonkel said his client believed it was a “dispute between tenants,” and the landlord had “no control of third parties and other tenant/s on the premises.”
Akaberi also denied accusations of harassment and denied working with the landlord to force Roberts out, according to the New York Times.
Roberts said: “It has been hell.
“I just want to make my apartment habitable and to live in peace.
“That’s all I want.”
Dozens of neighbors and members of Crown Heights CARE Collective, a community group, gathered outside of the property and yelled “shame” and “stand up, fight back” at the landlord, on November 20, 2022.
CARE Collective then started a GoFundMe page for Roberts.
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The page stated that Roberts still lives at the property to this day.
The judge later denied Roberts’ harassment claim against 972 Park Place LLC, on June 27, according to court documents.
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