New York City secured $31 million in penalties against negligent owners of two Bronx apartment buildings, marking the largest judgment ever obtained by the city. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced on Wednesday a record-setting settlement against landlords Karan Singh and Rajmattie Persaud, who own Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers. After tenants faced years of hazardous conditions, including lack of hot water, rat infestations, and elevator outages, and hundreds of housing code violations, the city sued the owners in 2024, and the properties later entered foreclosure.
Mamdani said tenants were forced to live in “inhumane” conditions, with heat and hot water outages forcing them to heat their apartments with space heaters and boil water to bathe.
“For years, tenants at Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers have been forced to live with vermin infestations, chronic elevator outages and a lack of heat and hot water – while their landlords met their suffering with silence. Today, that neglect is finally met with consequences,” Mamdani said.
In addition to the penalties, which are spread across the two buildings, located at 530-540 East 169th Street and 480 East 188th Street, the city said it froze $900,000 from the owners’ bank accounts and negotiated as part of a court judgment to release those funds to a newly appointed chief restructuring officer to be used for repairs at nearly 500 apartments.
The mayor said the city will ask Fannie Mae, which initiated foreclosure proceedings on the buildings, to work with HPD to find a preservation buyer. A new property manager has also been hired, the city said on Wednesday.
“We are taking control of the situation to make sure repairs are made, and conditions are permanently improved,” Mamdani said. “Every New Yorker deserves safe, dignified housing.”
According to the Bronx Times, tenants at Robert Fulton Terrace have filed more than 2,300 complaints over the last two years. At Fordham Towers, residents filed roughly 1,800 complaints during that same period.
HPD’s Anti-Harassment Unit within its Housing Litigation Division, along with the Legal Aid Society, filed a lawsuit against Fordham Fulton Realty and Singh and Persaud in 2024 for hundreds of housing code violations; the landlords were even held in civil and criminal contempt for failure to comply with court orders, as The Real Deal reported.
Last fall, Fordham Fulton Realty filed for bankruptcy after defaulting on a commercial mortgage covering both buildings. It’s unclear whether the bankruptcy will affect the landlords’ payout.
Both buildings were developed in the 1960s as middle-income housing under the Mitchell-Lama program. About 20 years ago, real estate speculators acquired the buildings and took them out of the program. Soon after, living conditions declined, and tenants started organizing to get repairs completed.
“For years, tenants at Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers have organized with Our Bronx to document dangerous conditions, build tenant leadership, and demand the safe, stable homes they deserve,” Sandra Lobo, executive director of organizing group Our Bronx, said.
“Today’s record penalty is a powerful reminder that when tenants are organized, their experiences cannot be dismissed and negligent ownership can be held accountable.”
The Mamdani administration plans to be more aggressive in pursuing legal action against negligent landlords. Earlier this year, the mayor announced the city allocated more than $85 million in its preliminary budget to hire 200 new attorneys and 100 additional support staff for the Law Department.
RELATED:
- Historic ruling forces Bronx landlord to pay $2.1M, fix violations within a month
- NYC landlord to pay $2.1M to resolve 4,000+ building-code violations
The post NYC announces record $31M in penalties against two Bronx landlords first appeared on 6sqft.
