After arriving home from the arctic cold outside, Karlyn Murphy boils water on her stove, soaking her feet in blissful warmth.<\/p>\n
For more than two years, her Brooklyn building has had sporadic heat and hot water \u2014 but the suffering has reached a new level of intensity with the recent polar chill<\/a>.<\/p>\n The water ranges from tepid to icy. \u201cThose of us who don\u2019t have a gym membership for showering, or a friend nearby, resort to boiling water,\u201d Murphy told The Post. One neighbor spends an hour each day heating water for bathing her two tots. Others stay at hotels.<\/p>\n Karlyn Murphy resides in a building where there has been sporadic heat and hot water for more than two years. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n Karlyn Murphy has had to boil water to soak her feet after arriving back home in order to stay warm. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n Frustration and discomfort constitute business as usual for Murphy and her fellow tenants at 491 Keap St., atop Hotel Indigo in the heart of Williamsburg. But, finally, there may be some relief in sight.<\/p>\n Residents have been in an ongoing court battle with their notorious landlord, Meyer Chetrit, who was indicted <\/a>last fall for harassing two elderly stabilized tenants in a Chelsea building he owns. The fancy Williamsburg building, opened in 2018 and where rents are in the thousands, is in foreclosure \u2014 owing at least $133 million to the mortgage lender, according to a different lawsuit. Con Ed has been threatening to turn off the utilities, which went unpaid by the landlord.<\/p>\n But late last month, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that a summer-appointed receiver \u2014 someone designated to oversee the building \u2014 had not made needed repairs, including for heat and hot water. The tenants can now proceed with their efforts to get a different administrator \u2014 called a 7A administrator \u2014 to manage the building, collect rents and make repairs.<\/p>\n It is \u201cpainstakingly clear that repairs have been minimal to nonexistent since the receivership appointment on August 6, 2025,\u201d judge Genine Edwards wrote, and \u201cthe receiver failed to adequately justify the delay in rectifying the hazardous conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n A temporary boiler sits outside of the building, but brings heat mainly to the hotel portion. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n For its part, the boiler can leak.<\/p>\n The boiler\u2019s connection to the building, residents say, isn\u2019t perfect.<\/p>\n The owner \u201csimply abandoned the rental tenants,\u201d according to court papers filed by Robin LoGuidice of Grimble & LoGuidice, who is representing the tenants, adding that the landlord has ignored the judge\u2019s orders to provide heat and hot water.<\/p>\n A temporary boiler sits outside, but it is channeling heat mostly to the hotel \u2014 which occupies the bottom half of the building \u2014 and not to the renters, LoGuidice said. Even so, the boiler is inadequate for the building\u2019s size. Hotel guests have left multiple online reviews<\/a> complaining about the frigid water.<\/p>\n \u201cThis hotel allowed us to check in without notifying us that all of the water was ice cold (temperatures were in the teens, so it was brutally cold) and that we would be unable to shower during our entire stay,\u201d wrote one recent one-star reviewer.<\/p>\n \u201cNo hot water at this hotel you can\u2019t even shower,\u201d wrote another. \u201cComplained 2x to staff and it was never fixed. Don\u2019t stay here!\u201d<\/p>\n Frigid water has been the focus of recent online reviews for the hotel.<\/p>\n Similarly, tenants have recorded tepid temperatures of the water coming from their faucets.<\/p>\n Last summer, now-retired judge Lawrence Knipel appointed a receiver, Jason Sackoor, and a management company, NYC Management, to oversee the building.<\/p>\n But they have been dragging their feet while the tenants suffer in the unforgiving cold, LoGuidice told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThe receiver waited until the storm of the century,\u201d she said. \u201cThe building has several young families with infants.\u201d<\/p>\n