ADI Management / Herbert Donner -- Report Back

I was in Queens Housing Court yesterday for the "trial" of the rent collection petition filed against me by one of the apartment building holding companies managed by ADI Management.

I am providing this report-back, bc I learned a lot yesterday. Hopefully, this information can trigger advocacy in some of these areas. I plan to write about these experiences in upcoming articles about real estate corruption, whenever this information can help inform my readers as background.

1/. This rent collection petition was filed by my landlord in August 2016 after I paid rent for July, but the Landlord refused to accept that rent. At trial, a person from ADI Management's office, Dimitri Saridis, testified that it is office policy to not accept rent if a "legal proceeding" is under way. (This confirms information that I had put into the Court record on my Cross Motion to Dismiss the Petition.) I had just settled a prior rent collection proceeding in July, and the Landlord used that as an "excuse" to not accept my rent for July. At trial, Dimitri said that if it is an account that he handles, he would return the denied rent by certified mail (which did not happen in my case), and there is no reason to take Dimitri on his word, because it seemed like a CYA ("cover your ass") statement. I asked Dimitri if he would not have returned my rent by certified mail, who else would be in charge of handling rent that would not be accepted. Dimitri said that besides him, it would be Herbert Donner, himself, who would intercept rent that the office would not accept. If anybody needs me to swear to this in an affidavit to help anyone out in any Housing Court case involving ADI Management, I am willing to do so.

2/. My trial judge was John Lansden. He would not allow me to enter a notarised Affidavit that backed-up information and pictures I wanted to enter into the record. The Judge took the pages where the pictures appeared, but he refused to take the Affidavit. The Judge said, "I control what documents you file with the Court." In the Affidavit, I had sworn that the Landlord never took care of complaints (a leak in my kitchen sink, an outbreak of cockroaches that literally came out of nowhere right after this petition was filed, etc.) that I made in my Cross Motion filed back in November. I had to testify to that, but the Judge would not allow me to enter that information as part of my notarised Affidavit.

3/. The Landlord finally provided to me a copy of my fully-executed Lease Renewal. The Judge gave the Landlord attorney agita for having waited so long. When it was my time to testify, I said that it was another bad faith act committed by the Landlord to deny me the fully-executed copy of the Lease Renewal, because the Lease Renewal was signed by Herbert Donner in September 2016, and the Landlord withheld the document from me ever since -- until yesterday. I testified that twice I went to HRA to apply for the One Shot Deal (in December 2016 and in March 2017), but HRA denied my applications both times, in part, because I could not document that I had a Lease Renewal and because the Landlord refused to sign the "Landlord Letter" required by HRA as an alternative to having a signed Lease Renewal. I don't know what can be done about this in my case (if the Landlord will face any consequence for the bad faith refusal to provide to me a copy of the fully-executed Lease Renewal), but perhaps this is something that City Council can take up in legislation (by assessing fines/penalties) ?

4/. As stated in #1/. above, this petition was filed because the Landlord denied to cash my rent check for July. As I learned when I was looking for a pro bono tenant attorney (which I never found), it is against the law for a Landlord to file rent collection petitions based on refusing to cash rent checks. I was told by a tenant attorney in Manhattan during a free initial consult that, even though this is against the law, this actually happens all the time. When I said to that tenant attorney that I filed a complaint with the Public Advocate's Office, that tenant attorney told me that the Public Advocate's Office does nothing about this. Perhaps it is time to bring some pressure on the Public Advocate's Office to actually do something about this ?

5/. Throughout the proceedings for this rent collection petition, I challenged the fact that the Landlord never served me with the Rent Demand. The first time I saw the Rent Demand was when the Landlord had the process server serve me with the Petition. At trial, the Judge said he could not take my documentation (a copy of my check and the envelope I used to mail the check), because I showed no receipt that I paid for the postage, and the copy of my check was too dark. MEANWHILE, the Judge didn't seem to care when I challenged the fact that the process server, who claimed to have sent my Rent Demand by certified and regular mail, was unable to produce the receipts to show that they purchased the postage to mail the Rent Demand.

6/. Before the "trial" began, the Judge threatened me into entering into a Stipulation with the Landlord, because, if we went to trial, most likely I would lose, and the Judge said that HRA would most likely not be able to pay the Landlord all the back rent (if I were to apply again for the One Shot Deal and be approved), before the Landlord sought to serve me with Eviction papers. I told the Judge how could I stipulate to a payment made by HRA before HRA determined how much aid it would provide ? The Judge didn't care. Mind you, this process dragged out, in part, because the Landlord refused to give me the fully-executed Lease Renewal or the "Landlord Letter," as required by HRA. Because the Landlord deliberately waited until the very last day to give me the Lease Renewal, the Landlord is gaming the timing, because the Landlord knows that HRA isn't going to move fast enough now. Big Landlords know this. The Judge knows this. And the Judge threatened me with this. If I had entered into a Stipulation, then I would have forfeited all the complaints I had against my Landlord. One of my friends said that some of this is definite tenant harassment. From the article I co-wrote about the BAN protest against one of the ADI Management apartment buildings in Brooklyn, we have already raised questions that have been brought to the attention of one of the U.S. Attorney's Offices that ADI Management may be violating the Fair Housing Act.

Like with everything, everybody seems to know that Landlords, particularly ADI Management, are violating the law every which way up and down and all around. The issue always comes down to which elected official or prosecutor's office is going to actually do something about it ? Every article I ever write, I never miss any opportunity to place responsibility where it belongs : On failed leadership. Organizing and political pressure has to be brought upon elected officials and on the prosecutors, who do nothing.