Tenants Commandeer Control Of 9-Unit Building After Clueless Absentee Landlord Gets In Over His Head & Abandons Premises, Leaving Mortgage, Utility Bills Unpaid; Residents Look To Form Co-Op, Acquire Title

In The Bronx, New York, the New York Daily News reports:

• Some tenants in slum buildings with rats and leaks stop paying rent. Others move out, complain or ask for handouts. But when their Bronx tenement crumbled due to landlord neglect, the tenants at 943 E. 179th St. banded together to collect rent and make repairs.
• Now they boast new kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, stoves, walls and floors, and they could become homeowners soon. With help from the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, the tenants hope to buy their beloved West Farms building outright and form a co-op.
• Department of Housing Preservation and Development officials harbor concerns about tenants performing renovations without permission rather than letting the city force landlords to make repairs. But Jacqueline Rodriguez and her neighbors were tired of waiting. "Most of the people here have been here a long time," said Rodriguez, tenant association president. "They don't want another landlord. No one is going to take care of the building better than the people who live here."
• Tucked between E. Tremont Ave. and the Bronx Zoo, 943 E. 179th St. began to deteriorate in 2007, after a Hamptons-based landlord purchased the four-story walkup, said Rodriguez, 32, a recreational therapist who grew up in the building.
• Broken pipes and windows went unmended and cockroaches swarmed to the slum. The 9-unit building still has 248 open housing code violations. It entered foreclosure in 2008, with Lehman Brothers holding the mortgage: a nightmare scenario, said Kerri White, UHAB organizer.
• "There were no repairs at all," said Rodriguez, 32, a mother of twin infants. "We suffered without hot water for six months and without heat for months…You pay your rent and you don't know where the money is going."
• The tenants found out about the foreclosure in 2010, when they were instructed to pay their rent to Con Edison via city marshals. Their landlord owed the utility $38,000, Rodriguez said. The revelation spurred Rodriguez and her neighbors to form a tenants association and corporation. They opened a bank account to hold their rent in escrow.
• In five months under the new system, the tenants have used their rent money to remodel several kitchens, buy new appliances and hire an exterminator. "When I got here there were roaches and rats all over, in every crevice," said exterminator Major Meyers of Complete Enterprize. "Now there are minimal issues."
• Several tenants who boast carpentry skills have donated their time and Rodriguez has taught some English to neighbors who speak only Spanish. The building "feels like a family" now, she said. Meanwhile, HPD has completed $80,714 in emergency repairs, and helped with boiler oil. The building --controlled by Lehman-affiliated mortgage holder 745 Special Assets LLC , and Aurora Bank -- could head to foreclosure auction soon.

For the story, see Determined West Farms tenants band together to fix up neglected Bronx slum building, work to form co-op.