![\"bronx](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2440walton3.jpg\")
Photo showing the aftermath of the late April fire at 2440 Walton Ave., included in court filings, over a month later. <\/p>\nThe group\u2019s lawyers are using a rare tactic, called 7A\u2014which the Mamdani administration has endorsed\u2014to sideline negligent landlords and compel repairs. Transferring management is a drastic step, but tenants say there is no other option.<\/p>\n
Photo showing the aftermath of the late April fire at 2440 Walton Ave., included in court filings, over a month later. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis what happens when u rent to Pigs,\u201d landlord Bradley Zar wrote in a text message about his tenants last year, according to court documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of Zar\u2019s tenants, Quasar Garc\u00eda, has been living in a homeless shelter since October. The NYC Department of Buildings deemed his Fordham Heights basement apartment uninhabitable, following months of persistent water damage from the building\u2019s faulty pipes that had rotted the joists under the floor and leaked soapy, used water onto his belongings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon inspection, DOB also determined that the building\u2019s other basement apartment had been converted illegally, and handed down another partial vacate order for that unit, where Garc\u00eda\u2019s mother\u2014who is disabled\u2014was living. She\u2019s been staying in temporary housing since December.<\/p>\n
Garc\u00eda says that the landlords\u2014Bradley and his brother Ryan Zar, operating under Point 2440 Realty LLC\u2014changed the locks when he left. When he sued, the court ordered the brothers to correct the outstanding violations and fix up the apartment, the deadline for which was earlier in July. The partial vacate order is still in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel powerless, dehumanized, in a place where I don\u2019t feel safe. I\u2019m in a state of constant tension,\u201d Garc\u00eda, between sobs, told City Limits in Spanish. \u201cThey\u2019ve stripped me of my freedom, my privacy, and my peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Garc\u00eda and other tenants at 2440 Walton Ave. in the Bronx are filing a lawsuit against Point 2440 Realty LLC, seeking to transfer the building\u2019s management to a court-appointed administrator to address what they describe as years of systemic neglect and harassment.<\/p>\n
The petition, filed on June 3, seeks to make the change under Article 7A of New York\u2019s property laws, which allows the court to put an administrator in charge if a building\u2019s owner fails to address dangerous conditions<\/a>. The Walton Avenue lawsuit cites the landlords\u2019 denial of responsibility to make repairs, and says repeated episodes of intimidation constitute harassment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe larger takeaway is that there\u2019s a pervasive and ever-present contempt for their tenants and their safety and well-being,\u201d said James Tourangeau, senior coordinating attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), who represents the tenants. \u201cThis building fits into this broader pattern of irresponsibility and incompetence and intentional neglect.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither Bradley Zar nor the brothers\u2019 lawyer in the case replied to requests for comment.<\/p>\n According to Tourangeau, there are only about two dozen active 7A administratorships in the city, making it a relatively little-invoked proceeding. Even so, Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged to \u201caggressively use the 7A program\u201d in his Fix the City initiative, a series of proposals to ramp up enforcement against bad landlords as part of his broader Block by Block<\/a> housing plan.<\/p>\n The goal? To move those buildings \u201cout of these bad actors\u2019 hands and conveyed to responsible preservation purchasers who are supported by both tenants and the administration,\u201d the mayor\u2019s plan reads.<\/p>\n Although 7A does not transfer ownership, it is one of many mechanisms that could indirectly lead to this outcome. While a building is under 7A administratorship and landlords are not getting rent payments, the city could encourage the owner to sell to a preservation buyer, including by placing additional financial pressure on them through civil penalties or, in some cases, engaging with lenders to initiate foreclosure proceedings.<\/p>\n The insinuation that the city might be removing properties from certain landlords\u2019 hands and transferring them to handpicked buyers has, naturally, rankled<\/a> many building owners. Still, the Zar brothers represent the type of landlord that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) seeks to go after to compel repairs and better living conditions for tenants.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery tenant has the right to safe, well-maintained housing,\u201d said HPD Commissioner Dina Levy in an emailed statement. \u201cHPD will continue to support the tenants at 2440 Walton Avenue as they seek the appointment of a 7A administrator, one of the most significant tools available to ensure that rents are used for maintaining a property and resources are available to support systemic repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n HPD has also pursued independent legal action against the Zar brothers for false certifications of dozens of HPD and DOB violations, which landed them on HPD\u2019s certification watchlist in January. The case is still ongoing.<\/p>\n Years of alleged mismanagement and contempt<\/p>\n Efra\u00edn Cazalez has lived in his apartment for over a decade; he says that the poor maintenance and harassment began when the Zar brothers bought the building, in which most of the units are rent stabilized, in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came with an idea, it seemed, that they wanted to remove all the tenants who were living there for a long time, for the obvious reason of wanting to raise the rents,\u201d said Cazalez in Spanish. \u201cThe harassment got really bad; every time anyone asked \u2018Can you repair this?\u2019 their position was, \u2018Oh, if you want to leave, just go, no problem. I\u2019ll even help you leave.’\u201d<\/p>\n According to the 7A petition, tenants have regularly had to deal with mold, water leaks, defective locks, unsafe electrical wiring, and lead-based paint hazards. Lawyers for the tenants describe \u201csurveillance, retaliation, and intimidation aimed at deterring tenants from contacting relevant government agencies\u201d about the landlords\u2019 unwillingness to make repairs.<\/p>\n Following a fire on the fourth floor in late April, Cazalez\u2019s apartment is one of the four units now under a vacate order from HPD\u2014distinct from the two DOB partial vacate orders, which together render a third of the building currently legally uninhabitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n The petition alleges that the landlords threw out tenants\u2019 belongings, even what wasn\u2019t ruined by the fire, without consulting them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Furthermore, Tourangeau and the tenants allege that the landlords not only were aware of but actively discouraged tenants from reporting the unsafe condition of their building to city authorities, while being unwilling to make the repairs necessary to remedy those conditions.<\/p>\n For example, court documents include an email sent to all tenants in the building in April 2025 discouraging them from letting anyone in, warning of \u201cfake city inspectors\u201d roaming the area. Meanwhile, tenants allege that the building\u2019s superintendent would routinely don a neon green vest saying \u201cCode Enforcement\u201d and pose as an inspector, intimidating tenants, photos of which are included in the petition.<\/p>\n Garc\u00eda got a restraining order against this superintendent\u2014his own uncle\u2014after he went to Garc\u00eda\u2019s workplace to try to get him fired, Garc\u00eda alleges, which he believes is because he filed complaints with city agencies about the condition of his apartment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The text messages contained in court filings\u2014including the one in which Bradley Zar referred to tenants as \u201cpigs\u201d\u2014have timestamps showing that the landlord and superintendent knew about the extensive repairs that would be necessary to mitigate the damage to Garc\u00eda\u2019s basement apartment, mere days before discussing how they might remove him from the unit. \u201cHe acting like a terrorist,\u201d Ryan Zar wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of this article\u2019s publication, 2440 Walton Ave. has 150 open violations from HPD, 135 of which are classified as \u201chazardous\u201d or \u201cimmediately hazardous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not asking them for free handouts,\u201d said Cazalez. \u201cIf I have a lease and they have a business, and I\u2019m following the law, I believe I deserve the service that I\u2019ve been paying for.\u201d<\/p>\n What is the 7A Program?<\/p>\n The 7A program refers to a section of the state-level statute governing real property proceedings, which lays out circumstances in which the courts might appoint an external administrator to collect rent from tenants, and use it to remedy adverse conditions in the building, while the landlord holds onto the deed.\u00a0<\/p>\n In New York City, HPD also offers limited financial assistance to administrators to make any structural repairs that might be necessary to mitigate dangerous conditions, which they can charge back to the landlord.<\/p>\n In one highly publicized case from 2023, the city won a lawsuit<\/a> against notorious landlord Daniel Ohebshalom, who had to pay millions of dollars in civil penalties and served two jail sentences as a result of the various legal cases brought against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result of the 7A proceeding, his building 410 W. 46th St. in Hell\u2019s Kitchen is now being operated by CFF Consulting, managed by Fernando Alfonso, who has served as a 7A administrator for a decade.<\/p>\n Since the administratorship legally requires that rent payments be diverted to emergency repairs and provision of essential services, the 7A administrator is authorized to make any remedy necessary to correct the conditions that required the administratorship in the first place, Alfonso told City Limits.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really saves people\u2019s lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the case of 410 W. 46th St., after HPD presented a scope of work for what would be required to fix up the building, his organization carried out a top-to-bottom renovation of the apartments.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the 7A administrator has to make immediate repairs to fix potentially life-threatening conditions before making their initial rent collections, Alfonso said, they might pay for them out of pocket and bill it to the landlord. The building owner would have to pay those costs, on top of any extant civil penalties, if they were to petition to remove the administrator and regain management control of the building.<\/p>\n This arrangement implies some financial stress on the part of the administrator. But housing experts say the structure of the 7A program also poses limits. For example, if an administrator isn\u2019t able to front the money for major capital improvements, they can\u2019t apply for a bank loan and put the building up as collateral, since the landlord would still have the deed.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth tenants and the 7A administrators often wind up caught between a rock and a hard place,\u201d said Goldstein. \u201cIt\u2019s very clear what needs to be done, but that is a mismatch with what the actual legal and financial authority and capability of a 7A administrator are.\u201d<\/p>\n In the case of 410 W. 46th St., there are still dozens of open housing code violations, most of which date from before CFF Consulting was appointed. According to Alfonso, this situation primarily reflects HPD\u2019s process for closing violations, and that the squalid conditions that brought about the original lawsuit have been resolved.<\/p>\n More broadly, the mayor\u2019s office and City Council have put considerable momentum behind capabilities and programs such as 7A. Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, who represents the district that includes Fordham Heights and is the chair of the committee on housing and buildings, expressed support for the tenants in their 7A proceeding against the Zar brothers.<\/p>\n \u201cLandlord harassment is unacceptable under any circumstance, but especially for residents who have already endured the trauma that comes with surviving a fire,\u201d said Sanchez. \u201cNo one should have to live in a home with hundreds of hazardous, active violations, and no one should have to survive a tragedy before seeing responsible building management.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Sanchez introduced legislation<\/a> that would strengthen the third-party transfer program<\/a>, a legal mechanism similar to 7A that targets buildings whose owners face considerable financial strain and tax delinquency, but which has been mostly unused in recent years. The bill currently has a majority of sponsors in the City Council.<\/p>\n The future for Walton Avenue residents<\/p>\n The next hearing date for the Walton Avenue tenants\u2019 7A case is in August, said Tourangeau.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Garc\u00eda says that he continues to languish in the shelter, despite having won two cases against his landlords: one in which he sued and the judge handed down an order to correct earlier this year, and another in which the Zar brothers sued him for rent nonpayment and the judge ruled in Garc\u00eda\u2019s favor, citing the unlivable condition of his apartment, on July 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n Garc\u00eda believes the owners have since rented out his unit to new tenants. A DOB spokesperson told City Limits that agency staff have been unable to gain access to the basement apartments to confirm whether they have been illegally reoccupied. The spokesperson also reaffirmed that property owners have a legal responsibility to fully comply with those orders.<\/p>\n The ongoing 7A case, should it succeed and lead to repairs, could allow Garc\u00eda and his disabled mother to move back into stable housing. He says that the landlords should face greater consequences for their actions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the government is doing isn\u2019t severe enough\u2026These people should be imprisoned. Because I feel like a prisoner,\u201d said Garc\u00eda. \u201cThe city should take all of their buildings away. This is happening here because we raised our voices, but if it\u2019s happening here so intensely, it\u2019s happening everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mamdani\u2019s housing plan, and further detailed in the administration\u2019s Rental Ripoff report published earlier this month<\/a>, HPD and the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants is pursuing \u201ccomprehensive investigations\u201d of some of the most distressed housing portfolios for inclusion in the Fix the City initiative.<\/p>\n The Rental Ripoff report states that \u201cthe administration is exploring expedited litigation processes for Housing Court cases related to building conditions,\u201d which explicitly includes 7A proceedings, as well as increasing the city\u2019s ability to levy fines against landlords who consistently fail to make repairs and allow their tenants to languish in poor conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cSince I became a housing attorney, I\u2019ve been enthralled by the potential of this device,\u201d said Tourangeau. \u201cThe 7A mechanism gets results because of the leverage that it has. They either clean up their side of the street, or, you know, someone else will.\u201d<\/p>\n To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
The rotted floors and broken tiles in the kitchen of Quasar Garc\u00eda\u2019s apartment, found in court filings.<\/p>\nPhotos of the aftermath of the late April fire at 2440 Walton Ave., included in court filings. <\/p>\nBronx County Housing Court, pictured here in 2022. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\n