Public Advocate Bill de Blasio today added 109 new buildings to his NYC’s Worst Landlords Watch List. These buildings were identified through submissions to de Blasio’s website. The Watch List now has 269 buildings representing 196 landlords and housing approximately 5,600 tenants.

Among the new landlords added to the Watch List is David Bistricer of Clipper Equity LLC, owner of the Flatbush Gardens complex in Brooklyn. 44 of the complex’s 59 buildings qualify for the Watch List, making him the landlord with the highest cumulative number of violations and buildings on the list. Combined, the buildings in the complex have 6,475 open violations with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 827 of which are designated as “immediately hazardous” violations including lack of hot water, broken door locks, and peeling lead paint. There are approximately 10,000 tenants living in Flatbush Gardens.

The Watch List is available online at: advocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist.

“Flatbush Gardens is on the Public Advocate’s Watch List because of their many code infractions. When I was a tenant organizer at Flatbush Gardens, tenants paid to live in filth and hazardous conditions.  It saddens me that the new landlord continues to disobey NYC laws. In addition, I believe this landlord has been targeting low income tenants to leave their homes as a means to bring in higher paying tenants. This landlord should be held accountable for his actions and dealt with accordingly. New Yorkers need the Worst Landlords Watch List so we can force the City to focus on those buildings and owners to maintain safe quality housing for their tenants,” said Council Member Jumaane D. Williams.

The Public Advocate’s NYC’s Worst Landlords Watch List is the first resource of its kind to allow tenants to look up a current or potential landlord by name and check code violations for other buildings the landlord owns. All buildings on the Watch List meet a threshold of at least two open serious violations per unit issued by HPD.