The New York City Public Advocate released on Wednesday the annual list of the city’s worst landlords.

Officials say the landlord who landed on top of the 2025 list racked up the most violations in history — 24 buildings with nearly 5,000 open violations.

It did not take a watchlist for Merlyn Williams to know her landlord of 38 years has pretty much let her apartment fall apart. She said she has filed countless complaints.

In fact, she’s happy to find out her landlord has been named the worst in the city.

“Very — good things will get done,” Williams said.

On Wednesday morning in Prospect Lefferts Garden, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams announced the number one and number two names on the 2025 worst landlord watchlist.

Margaret Brunn and Donald Hastings both represent the same company – A&E Real Estate Holdings – with 9,000 open violations across 60 buildings in the city.

“If A&E sounds familiar, it’s because they have hundreds of properties in total and because last week the city settled a lawsuit with A&E Real Estate which will mandate repairs across some of their portfolio,” the public advocate said.

The worst landlord list is expected to have a greater impact this year under Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who has already started implementing an aggressive agenda to protect tenants and hold abusive landlords accountable.

“They immediately reached out to us to start seeing how they can be helpful with the list, how they can make it a little bit more visible and put some real resources behind it,” Jumaane Williams said.

Rounding out the top five after A&E Real Estate Holdings are Barry Singer, Joseph Cafiero and Peter Fine.

“These are really bad actors, these are the worst of the worst and they’re still making a lot of money,” Jumaane Williams said.

A&E Real Estate responded to the list on Wednesday in a statement that said:

“Since acquisition, we have invested over $800 million across our portfolio to improve the quality of our housing, meaning that every single one of our buildings is in better shape today than it was when we assumed management. That significant investment makes a real difference for our residents, and has resulted in replaced boilers, modernized elevators, fortified security, and the clearance of 35,000 violations. To label over $800 million in repairs as “neglect” is misleading and unrealistic, even as we recognize there is much more work to be done. It has been our mission to work with the City to improve every building we manage and address long-standing issues at properties that have been neglected for too long. That will not change.”

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