A list of the worst landlords in New York City has been revealed by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, a Brooklynite who previously represented Flatbush in City Council.
Titled "2022 Worst Landlord Watchlist," the interactive list names the 100 most negligent landlords throughout the city. The determining factors of the list were based on data provided by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which included the average amount of housing violations each landlord incurred monthly.
The top five worst offenders on the list were all landlords with multiple buildings throughout Brooklyn. Between the five of them, they averaged a whopping total of almost 9,300 housing violations recorded by HPD.
The borough with the most buildings on the watchlist was Brooklyn.
The five worst landlords, according to the list, were Johnathan Santana, Brian Ritter, David Tennenbaum, Sima Abdavies and Jacob Bistricer.
Santana, named worst landlord in 2022, averaged 2,980 housing violations across 15 buildings throughout New York City. This was the highest amount of violations in the history of the list, according to Williams.
In total, between the 100 worst landlords named on the list, there were 69,018 violations recorded, which was an almost 30% increase from 2021.
Williams says that the record-high housing violations across NYC come amidst a time when rent has risen significantly.
“Across the city, housing costs are up and housing quality is down. Rents are becoming unaffordable and conditions are becoming unlivable,” Williams said, in releasing the list.
“The only explanation for this is that landlords are putting profits over people, and prioritizing circumventing or repealing housing laws rather than following them. To combat both the specific conditions that threaten the well-being of tenants in these buildings and the overall trends that deepen this citywide crisis, we need to meet this crisis with strong regulations and real consequences. That means the city needs to dismiss disingenuous arguments from bad actors, and invest more resources for enforcement, not cut what we have.”
Williams said that he is currently pursuing potential solutions to the issues that were prevalent on the list.
Williams says that City Council recently listened to the first of two bills in the Worst Landlord Accountability Act, called Intro 583. The legislation would prohibit landlords from certifying that violations have been corrected without an inspection, preventing them from falsely claiming that repairs have been completed.
Additionally, City Council will also be reintroducing another bill that would require HPD to respond and perform inspections of hazardous violations in a quicker manner, according to Williams.
To view the full list of worst landlords in NYC click here, or reach out to Williams' office’s Text Line, 833-933-1692, to learn about whether your landlords are featured on the list, how to report violations and access resources for tenants to organize and seek relief.
