{"id":222234,"date":"2026-05-06T17:56:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/222234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T17:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:56:46","slug":"city-fines-bronx-worst-landlords-31m-pushes-to-intervene-in-foreclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/222234\/","title":{"rendered":"City Fines Bronx ‘Worst Landlords’ $31M, Pushes To Intervene In Foreclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"

After racking up almost 2,000 violations, two\u00a0Bronx<\/a>\u00a0landlords\u00a0have been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars in penalties over the conditions of their buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karan Singh<\/a> and Rajmattie Persaud<\/a>, the owners of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers, have been slapped with a $31M judgment in a\u00a0lawsuit brought by the New York City\u00a0Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Mayor\u00a0Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u00a0and HPD Commissioner\u00a0Dina Levy\u00a0announced Wednesday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani, flanked by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants Director Cea Weaver, at a press conference May 6, 2026\n <\/p>\n

As part of the judgment, over $900K will be frozen from\u00a0Singh and Persaud’s\u00a0bank accounts.\u00a0A housing court judge ordered an\u00a0independent chief restructuring officer\u00a0to be appointed. They\u00a0will use the funds to make critical repairs to the 500 units across the two buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fannie Mae<\/a>\u00a0already\u00a0initiated foreclosure proceedings<\/a>\u00a0on the buildings last year after the landlords defaulted on a $61.5M mortgage. In court filings, the lender alleged that the Environmental Control Board had filed hundreds of violations against both properties, totaling nearly $705K in fines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The complaint also alleged that the landlords owe several liens on the properties for unpaid utilities, including about $4M to the New York City Water Board and $3M to Consolidated Edison.<\/p>\n

Another lawsuit, filed by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of 62 tenants in 2024, claimed that the Fulton property had 600 HPD violations, with 200 classified as \u201cimmediately hazardous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The violations, which include chronic heat and hot water outages, broken elevators and infestations, now total nearly 2,000,\u00a0Legal Aid Society<\/a> Staff Attorney Zoe Kheyman said in a statement on Wednesday. Singh and Persaud have also previously made appearances on New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams<\/a>\u2019 Worst Landlord Watchlist.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Fulton Towers at 530-540 E. 169th St. in the Bronx\n <\/p>\n

The Mamdani administration is now asking that Fannie Mae work with HPD and tenants to identify a buyer who will be able to maintain the buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration secured the largest penalty in HPD\u2019s history because no landlord is above the law. But penalties alone are not enough,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cWe are taking control of the situation to make sure repairs are made and conditions are permanently improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case, brought by the Anti-Harassment Unit within HPD\u2019s Housing Litigation Division, was first filed in 2024.<\/p>\n

Levy noted that she organized with the tenants in the buildings in 2009, when the properties transitioned out of the Mitchell-Lama Program.<\/p>\n

The court judgment will give HPD \u201cleverage in bankruptcy proceedings, which we\u2019ll use to deliver better outcomes for residents,\u201d Levy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The city previously objected to the bankruptcy sale of\u00a0Pinnacle Group<\/a>\u2019s 5,200-unit portfolio. Nonetheless, the sale to\u00a0Zohar Levy<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Summit Properties USA<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0approved by a judge<\/a>\u00a0just days after Mamdani took office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After racking up almost 2,000 violations, two\u00a0Bronx\u00a0landlords\u00a0have been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars in penalties…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[128,42273,25779,42598,87452,8073,87405,3782,9,24,63,122,124,123,87406,87453,82],"class_list":["post-222234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-bronx","tag-cea-weaver","tag-department-of-housing-preservation-and-development","tag-dina-levy","tag-fannie-mae","tag-jumaane-williams","tag-karan-singh","tag-legal-aid-society","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-rajmattie-persaud","tag-zoe-kheyman","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}