Tenants say ‘worst landlord’ building still plagued by issues despite court order
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Tenants of 41-25 Case St. in Elmhurst continue to report mold infestations, broken fixtures, and holes throughout the building two months after a judge ordered A&E Realty to address the issues. Eagle file photo by Noah Powelson
By Noah Powelson
Tenants of a building owned by the city’s “worst landlord” say their Elmhurst apartment complex remains in poor condition, nearly two months after a Queens judge ordered the owners to repair it.
Attorneys who represent the tenants of 41-25 Case St. in Elmhurst, which is owned by A&E Realty, said in court on Wednesday that while the landlord has made some repairs to the crumbling building, many tenants haven’t seen mold in their apartments cleaned up, broken tiles replaced, holes filled or other chronic issues plaguing their homes addressed around two months after a Queens judge ordered the fixes to be made.
The tenants also alleged that many of the repairs carried out over the last month were only temporary fixes that did little to prevent the original problems from recurring weeks or days later.
A&E Realty now has until early October to make the repairs, and could face further legal action if the violations aren’t adequately addressed by then.
The building, owned by A&E Realty executive Margaret Brunn, had accumulated over 300 violations with the Department of Housing, Preservation & Development when tenants took their landlord to court at the beginning of June.
Attorneys with Queens Legal Services NYC – a legal aid nonprofit representing 41-25 Case St. tenants in their case – said residents were facing mold, rodent infestations, defective locks, broken smoke alarms and other hazards.
Some tenants said their apartments had been improved since Queens Housing Court Judge Shorab Ibrahim ordered A&E to address the violations back in June. The lock to the building’s front door, which residents said had been broken for months, was repaired in recent weeks.
41-25 Case St. residents say their landlord regularly misses repair dates and that work they do complete often fails to address core issues. Photo provided by Queens Legal Services NYC
But just as many tenants say that the repairs are temporary solutions and problems reappear soon after the work is done.
A QLSNYC staff member who acts as a liaison to the 41-25 Case St. tenants said the repairs the owners followed through on often took a long time to be completed and rarely addressed the root issues.
Instead of fixing a hole or mold in the walls, the staff member said, A&E would apply a new layer of paint.
“We had one tenant have a complete hole in their apartment that fell right on top of their toilet and dirt would come down. And management addressed that really poorly,” the staff member said. “It took them not only more than a week to address that hole at all, but when it did happen, they just taped a piece of cardboard up there to stop the debris from falling down, which doesn't fully address the issue.”
The staff member also said that tenants are forced to regularly call out of work on days when repairs are scheduled but that A&E rarely shows up.
Bianca-Zarate-MacPherson, a staff attorney with the Tenant Rights Coalition at QLSNYC, said that if repairs in the coming months are insufficient, they may consider calling for further citations or a trial.
According to data available on HPD’s website, the building currently has 273 open violations.
Ibrahim on Wednesday issued further HPD inspections to take place in apartment units that had no previous violations.
For now, more inspections and access dates are being arranged between the tenants, A&E and HPD, as attorneys prepare for their next court appearance on Oct. 5.
In a statement to the Eagle, an A&E spokesperson said that HPD violations do not show the full story of the building, claiming many violations were duplicates or could not be addressed because tenants did not grant access for repairs.
“We have invested $4.7 million into 41-25 Case Street to improve living conditions for residents and deliver the quality of housing they need and deserve,” the spokesperson said. “This is a significant investment that has made a meaningful difference in the form of electrical upgrades, window replacements, new boilers, and the closure of 2,000 work orders.”
“Most importantly, it demonstrates our commitment to the building and its community, and we welcome the opportunity to work directly with residents to address each concern they may have rather than through litigation,” the spokesperson added.
The story of the current legal battle at 41-25 Case St. began a year ago, when residents formed a tenant union and handed over a list of serious repairs to their landlord. At that time, the building had accumulated around 372 HPD violations, according to the tenant union.
They brought their case to Queens Housing Court in June, and were joined in solidarity by Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas. The following week, Ibrahim issued an order compelling A&E to resolve the outstanding violations or risk possibly thousands of dollars in fines.
Amber Gill, a tenant organizer and resident at 41-25 Case St., previously said conditions at the building had repeatedly left her and her family severely ill.
“The conditions in our apartments have affected far more than our comfort, they have affected our wealth, finance and daily lives,” Gill said when the case was first brought forward in June. “The only thing I received was broken promises from A&E that ‘we will fix it tomorrow.’”
The building’s owner, Brunn, topped Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ “worst landlord list” in 2025.
Brunn is also the landlord of 43-09 47th Ave., a Sunnyside building that suffered a major fire that left 14 people injured and 250 people displaced on Dec. 20, 2023.
Brunn and A&E executive Donald Hastings, the city’s second-worst rated landlord, were both sued in a class action lawsuit in July after a watchdog group alleged A&E had illegally overcharged millions of dollars in rent. The Housing Rights Initiative claimed their investigation found A&E had increased rent across five Queens rent-stabilized buildings without providing legally required improvements. A&E has denied the allegations.
Brunn and Hastings managed 50 buildings across the city with over 8,000 violations between them in 2025, according to the public advocate’s office.
