Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Ten Plagues of Tenant Harassment Visited by the New York Slumlord on Rent Regulated Tenants

"I DON'T MAKE NO REPAIRS UNLESS COURT TELL ME TO" SAID ROBERT CHOU

Rodents: And the little mice did abound and scurry, leaping everywhere, from stove to cupboard, eating wires and leaving tiny black droppings . And the big rats did invade the heaps of trash left on the sidewalks and stalked by night.


Darkness: And the roof did leak so badly through the overhead light that Con Edison shutteth the power off plunging the apartment into darkness for twenty- four days as The Slumlord tarried long in fixing the roof. And there was no internet or TV, naught but the window sill for refrigerator, an aged battery radio for music and news.  As the heat did fail in the polar vortex winter, the tenant was forced to beg shelter,  and to sleep on a pallet on someone’s floor.