Ex-Queens DA candidate named on annual worst landlord list
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The building at 381 Vernon Ave. in Brooklyn has accumulated 429 HPD violations this year, according to the public advocate’s annual landlord watchlist. Photo via Google Maps.
By David Brand
A Queens-based attorney and former candidate for Queens District Attorney was named one of New York City's worst landlords by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams Monday, after a building she owns accumulated more than 400 violations from the Department of Housing Preservation & Development so far this year.
Betty Lugo, a defense attorney and former prosecutor who finished last in June’s Democratic Primary for Queens DA, was ranked as the 48th worst landlord on Williams’ watchlist based on complaints reported at a three-unit building she owns in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Lugo is listed as the agent, shareholder and head officer of the LLC that owns the building at 381 Vernon Avenue. The property, located near the Bushwick border, has accumulated 429 open HPD violations and five open Department of Buildings violations, according to Williams’ landlord list.
The HPD website shows daily complaints of no heat or hot water at the building from January 16 to February 16, as well as additional heat and hot water complaints in March and April. The heat and hot water complaints resumed last month.
Tenant Nelson Alvarado said he has lived in the building for 50 years and that the heat and hot water problems began in 2011 when his brother owned the building. “They’re just not being responsive,” he said of the past and present landlords.
Lugo disputed Alvarado’s account and said Alvarado has been “an abusive tenant” who “has taken over the entire building” and has threatened her and contractors who have visited the building. Alvarado attacked his brother, the former landlord, when he tried to open the door to let an electrician inside, she said. He was convicted of assault with a weapon in October in Kings County Criminal Court.
Property co-owner Carmen Pacheco, Lugo’s law partner, said she and Lugo have done “everything possible to rectify” the situation. Alvarado poked a hole in the roof after they repaired it and he has put a chain around the front door that prevents the landlords or HPD from accessing the building, she said.
“He’s painting us as a slumlord and we’re not,” Pacheco said, adding that they purchased a “brand new, state-of-the-art boiler” for the building.
“We just want to fix it,” she added.
Pacheco sent photos to the Eagle that show a chain around the front gate leading to the building and water running in the bathroom, which floods the floor and drains the boiler, she said.
Alvarado has also filed complaints for mold, pests, exposed wiring and broken or defective doors in the building this year. The most recent complaint was filed for mold on Dec. 3, according to the HPD website.
The annual list of problem property owners began in 2010 under then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio 2010. Williams’ predecessor Letitia James continued the tradition. The majority of the buildings owned by the ten worst landlords on Williams’ list are located in Brooklyn; one is located in Woodside.
Several other buildings on the list are located in Ridgewood near the rapidly gentrifying Bushwick border.
