FILE – New York Attorney General Letitia James
Photo by Dean Moses
A Brooklyn-based property management company will have to pay four tenants up to $1,200 each for illegally locking them out of their apartments following an investigation by the Office of Attorney General (OAG) Letitia James, according to an announcement on Friday.
The investigation found that Spigro Management, LLC and its lead property manager, Saul Friedman, illegally evicted tenants from four different buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx between 2020 and 2025.
James said that the settlement, which was signed on Wednesday, represented OAG’s larger commitment to protecting tenants in New York.
“Spigro callously violated the trust, safety, and privacy of occupants by illegally changing their locks while they were not home,” said James. “Attempting to evict people from their homes by sneaking in and changing the locks is as sinister as it is shameful. My office will always take action against any property manager or landlord that violates tenants’ rights.”
Most of the cases involved illegally evicting additional occupants by changing the locks following the death of loved ones who they shared the apartments with. Frequently, Spigro claimed the tenants had never lived in the apartment in the first place, although they had been tenants for decades, according to court documents.
In one case, Spigro changed the locks while a tenant was taking out the trash. The man, who had lived for 22 years in an apartment in Brooklyn with his mother up until her death. After Spigro locked him out, the tenant said he heard from neighbors that the landlord was removing his belongings from the apartment without permission.
In another case, an employee of Spigro was working as a porter and living on-site at a Brooklyn building for around a year when he was injured on the job. The man filed for workers compensation and required surgery. When he returned home, he found that the company had fired him and changed the locks on his apartment, denying that he had ever been an employee.
In addition to individual restitution, the management company must pay $23,500 in penalties and put guardrails in place to prevent future illegal evictions. For the 40 buildings it manages, Spigro is required to develop an internal lock-out policy, detailing the legal steps employees must take to change a tenant’s locks along with a log of all lock changes. OAG will monitor Spigro for three years, requiring the company to report any allegations of illegal evictions to ensure compliance.