City’s ‘worst landlord’ illegally overcharged Queens residents millions in rent, lawsuit alleges
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The apartment building on Parsons Boulevard owned by A&E Realty where residents allegedly have been the victims of overcharged rent increases. Screenshot taken from Google Maps
By Noah Powelson
The city’s “worst landlords” are facing a new class action lawsuit after they allegedly overcharged rent-stabilized Queens residents by millions of dollars without implementing legally required improvements to their apartments.
A&E Real Estate, whose executives were recently ranked as the city’s first- and second-worst landlords, was sued after an investigation claimed it was overcharging rent-stabilized tenants in five of its Queens buildings by $5 million or more in rent.
Three of the five buildings are owned by Margaret Brunn and Donald Hastings, who were ranked the worst and second worst landlords in the city in 2025 by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
The class action lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of eight residents by the law firm Newman Ferrara LLP, which has sued A&E multiple times over alleged housing violations.
The watchdog group behind the investigation, the Housing Rights Initiative, alleged A&E falsely claimed it improved apartment units in order to jack up rent prices.
Under New York’s rent stabilization laws, owners may increase rent when they make significant investments and improvements to a building, often referred to as Individual Apartment Improvements or IAIs.
According to HRI, its investigation uncovered numerous times that A&E Real Estate claimed it made IAIs in order to increase rent, but such improvements never actually took place.
The lawsuit alleges one apartment at 34-15 Parsons Blvd. had its rent increased from $1,398 to $2,941 between 2018 and 2019. Such an increase would have required an approximately $62,000 investment to justify it, but HRI claimed there was no evidence any such improvements took place.
The same claim is made for the other four apartment units listed in the lawsuit.
“A&E has made an entire business model out of buying up rent-stabilized buildings, jacking up the rents, and contributing to making our neighborhoods increasingly unaffordable for working New Yorkers,” Michael Shank, HRI organizing director, said in a statement. “They are the poster child for ‘bad landlord’ and HRI won’t rest until all A&E tenants have a properly stabilized lease and are compensated for any and all overcharges.”
In response, a spokesperson for A&E denied the allegations and said the claims were “absurd.” The spokesperson accused Roger Sachar, a partner at Newman Ferrara LLP who filed the class action lawsuit on Monday, of regularly filing faulty lawsuits against A&E.
“Roger Sachar has been unsuccessfully suing A&E-managed buildings for 10 years and has gotten absolutely nowhere with them,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “He is an opportunist who seeks to profit off his clients while blanketing owners of rent-stabilized properties with lawsuits backed by absurd claims.”
“Filing baseless lawsuits against good managers like A&E, which has invested $850 million in building upgrades, is a waste of everyone’s time and does nothing to improve the lives of New York’s working families,” the spokesperson added. “We are committed to providing our residents with well-managed workforce housing even as we navigate through frivolous lawsuits and a housing crisis created by the maze of recent rent-stabilization laws and regulations."
The spokesperson also said investments and renovations have been done to the 34-15 Parsons Blvd. apartment listed in the filing, and provided alleged before and after images of the unit in question.
The new class action lawsuit is just the most recent in a string of legal actions taken against A&E in the past year, as the city has made a point to address housing violations accumulated by the “worst landlord” in the city.
In January, A&E agreed to a $2.1 million settlement with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development for violations it accumulated in 14 buildings across three boroughs. Roughly 750 tenants live in the buildings, and reportedly dealt with bed bugs, fire hazards, broken elevators and other issues.
Last June, the tenant union that represents residents at 41-25 Case St. in Elmhurst brought A&E to court, where a Queens Housing Court judge ordered the real estate company to address the more than 300 violations accumulated at the building.
The Case Street building is managed by Brunn, who was the A&E executive that Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams had listed as the city’s worst landlord of 2025.
Brunn and Hastings manage 50 buildings with over 8,000 violations between them in 2025, according to the public advocate’s office. Hastings owns two of the five buildings listed in Monday’s lawsuit, and Brunn owns one, according to the public advocate’s office.
Williams stated his support for the class action lawsuit filed on Monday.
“Every day tenants in A&E buildings have lived in conditions no New Yorker should have to accept, and every day they have waited for accountability,” Williams said in a statement. “This class action lawsuit is one path for driving that accountability and delivering results. My office has stood alongside these tenants throughout the investigation, and we will continue to stand beside them through this litigation and beyond.”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards also voiced his support for the lawsuit and said his office would continue to address A&E violations in Queens.
"For far too long, A&E Real Estate has taken advantage of tenants across Queens, forcing working-class families to pay more than they should have in rent while simultaneously allowing their buildings to fall into startling disrepair,” Richards said in a statement. “That must end now.
