The story I’m about to tell you is incredibly dumbfounding, I’ve documented crimes happening through a three year battle of gross negligence by M Remodeling Corp and the entanglement with the Department of Buildings who may also be doing something illegal, that of which the homeowner of this short doc is a character witness.

Meet Ms. Elias, she is a senior and homeowner of a brownstone in Bed-stuy of 19 years who has been facing down a shady developer next door to her home. This battle began three years ago when M Remodeling Corp straight up jeopardized the foundation of her home when they brought down the building next door at 438 Herkimer. The roof of her building has even shifted (as shown below) and is pressing down on her entire home, but it gets worse, the owner has openly threatened her for getting a judge involved (who awarded her a STOP WORK ORDER) when they refused to fix the damages that her property began to sustain all over the inside and outside of her home.

The TRO (stop work order) would unfortunately be a short-lived victory however when The Department of Buildings had given them a work permit against the supreme court’s order. Yes, that’s right, the Department of Buildings who’s branch was created to oversee this EXACT type of reckless development to PROTECT homeowners granted the developer M. Remodeling Corporation a work permit against our Supreme Court’s ruling.

Ms. Elias had her suspicions when she witnessed a DOB employee exchanging cards with the developer in front of her home. This happened soon after the STOP WORK ORDER was issued and she went straight up to them and asked why their employee was here with the developer exchanging cards when he is supposed to be protecting her the homeowner against them? That’s when the property owner pointed his finger in her face and said, “Oh, so you think you can get the DOB involved on me huh? This is going to be the biggest mistake of your life." The DOB’s report following this incident conveniently left critical details on the damage to her home as well as the developer next door illegally building four floors of metal beams past the court order’s TRO.

The developer even had the gall to even sue her for impeding their work for $300,000. Yet they haven’t paid for the damages to the foundation of her home which has shifted as a result of them bringing down the building next door without underpinning her home first (many brownstones in Brooklyn are like conjoined twins and expert engineers commonly underpin and sure up homes before demolition to protect adjacent properties from shifting.) They haven’t obeyed the law, and it seems they have a cozy relationship with someone at the DOB that acted on their behalf instead of Ms. Elias, who is clearly just an obstacle in their way.

A few days ago I decided to stop by her home and film some extra b-roll for the documentary and found these three workers leaving 438 Hermiker St.

Workers are routinely seen leaving 438 Herkimer despite multiple TRO’s by the Supreme Court. When I asked why they were there and if they knew a judge declared a TRO they refused to answer my questions and immediately left. During this time mind you Ms. Elias was awarded ANOTHER TRO, so what I witnessed and documented above was yet another potential violation of those legal terms. The crime of working past a TRO is financial penalties and possible jail time.

Ms. Elias’s updated TRO specifically says no work must take place until her October 19th court case settles the matter for once and all. I hope that the overwhelming body of evidence her engineers have photographed (before, during, and after) of M. Remodeling Corporations reckless construction work brings justice to Ms. Elias who has been living a nightmare for the past three years. No one should have to deal with this abuse of power, targeted harassment, endangerment to their home, and lack of accountability and justice.

I hope that this documentary also prepares New Yorker’s to the potentiality of corruption in the Department Of Building’s where their employees are potentially making deals with developers violating the rule of law as per the Supreme Court’s orders and against their own department's policies.

We are screening this short doc (20 minutes in length) at Starr Barr Wednesday, October 18th, 2017 6pm-8pm.

I’ll be there personally alongside Jacob White (the videographer) and possibly Equality For Flatbush reps who I created this documentary on behalf of to answer questions and share the latest information on Ms. Elias’s battle against the vulture development culture preying on homeowners and the utter failure of city services to defend homeowners like her.

Please flood the Department Of Buildings with calls & demand they rescind the Work Permit given to 438 Hermiker and respect the rule of law as per the Supreme Court’s multiple TRO (Stop Work Order) rulings in Ms. Elias’s favor. 

THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS

Brooklyn Borough Office

210 Joralemon Street, 8th Floor

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Ira Gluckman, RA, Borough Commissioner

Kazimir Vilenchik, PE, Deputy Borough Commissioner

Reda Shehata, RA, Deputy Borough Commissioner

Borough Commissioner: (718) 802-3677 & (718) 802-3676

Borough Manager: (718) 802-3635

Customer Service: (718) 802-3675

TTY Number: (718) 802-4330