NYC reaches $2.1M settlement with A&E Real Estate over alleged tenant harassment

New York City has reached a $2.1 million deal with A&E Real Estate covering 14 buildings across three boroughs, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani saying the deal would force repairs and end what he described as harassment of tenants.

“Today I am proud to be here … to announce that the City of New York has reached an agreement with A&E Realty regarding 14 buildings across three boroughs,” Mamdani said Friday at a news conference in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Asked at the press conference how aggressive the new administration is toward landlords, Mamdani responded: “We want to make it clear to everyone in this city that no one is above the law, and if you are a landlord who violates the law, then this administration will hold you accountable.”

Mamdani said the settlement requires A&E to pay “$2.1 million in restitution” and includes “injunctions preventing them from harassing their tenants” while requiring the company “to correct more than 4,000 building code violations in these 14 buildings.”

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a news conference in Queens on Friday, where he announced a $2.1 million settlement involving A&E Real Estate to address alleged tenant harassment and unsafe conditions in 14 buildings in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“For years, A&E has operated with complete disregard for the people residing in its properties, racking up more than 140,000 violations in total, including 35,000 in the last year alone,” Mamdani said. “City Hall will not stand by and accept this illegality, nor will they allow bad actors to continue to harass tenants with impunity.”

One tenant, Diana De La Paz, described conditions residents faced in her building, including prolonged elevator outages, heat issues and infestations. De La Paz said the elevator in her building was out of service for long periods of time, which she said was “effectively trapping.”[ed] elderly and disabled tenants in their own homes.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a news conference Friday in Queens. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Dina Levy said the agreement would affect “750 tenants across 14 buildings” and that the city’s litigation “resulted in a settlement that will lead to the correction of more than 4,000 housing code violations.”

“It will enforce long-standing court-ordered relief and impose $2.1 million in civil penalties and include enforceable injunctions that will prohibit further harassment of tenants and require continued compliance by this landlord,” Levy said.

Levy said the deal represented the unit’s largest settlement to date.

“In fact, the settlement announced today … represents HPD’s largest settlement in the unit’s history,” Levy said, adding that the city has additional tools it can use, including intervening in troubled buildings and, in extreme situations, removing buildings from owners’ control and implementing “reactive management.”

He added that the city’s immediate priority was to address the violations through the bylaw, but he cautioned that additional action was possible if property owners did not comply.

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Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York on January 1 on two family Qurans. (Amir Hamja/Pool via Reuters)

“The desired outcome is the safety and well-being of tenants,” Mamdani said. “Today we are announcing a multi-million dollar settlement with this landlord to truly remedy these violations. That’s what we want to see. If a landlord cannot reach a settlement and continues to operate outside the law, then we will hold them accountable through other means.”

City Council member Shekar Krishnan, who represents Jackson Heights, called A&E a “reprehensible landlord” and said enforcement is what tenants need.

“As a former tenant advocate myself…I have always said that tenant rights are no more than the paper they are written on, if they are not enforced in reality,” Krishnan said. “Here we are today…showing what the app looks like.”

Mamdani also announced what he called hearings on “rent scams” ​​across the city.

“We will hold a hearing on rent gouging in each of the five boroughs within the first 100 days of our administration,” he said, describing them as hearings in which multiple agencies will “listen to the needs of New Yorkers” and use that feedback to shape enforcement and policy.

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“We made it our mission to work with the city to improve this building and others that were in very poor condition when we took ownership,” an A&E Real Estate spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “In every building we have purchased, we have invested in replacing boilers, rehabilitating elevators and repairing tens of thousands of long-standing violations.

“We are pleased to have resolved all legal matters with the city and to have agreed on a repair plan with the housing department which we are already implementing. We look forward to working with the City to improve the lives of our residents and finding collaborative ways to protect and continue to invest in New York City’s housing stock.