Brooklyn Tenants File Class-Action Lawsuit Against Their Landlord

BROOKLYN, NY — A prominent Brooklyn landlord is facing a class-action lawsuit from tenants who claim they were harassed for not paying rent during the coronavirus pandemic.

Carnegie Management, which owns at least a fifteen New York City properties, was sued this week by tenants from one of its buildings on Eldert Street, who say the company retaliated against them for not paying rent and organizing by making damaging reports to credit bureaus.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, comes nearly a year after the tenants, many of whom lost their jobs in the pandemic, first formed a tenant organization and hired a lawyer. It argues that tenants at four other nearby Carnegie buildings have faced the same treatment.

"We decided as a group to take legal action because if we didn't, no one was going to make Carnegie answer for playing outside the law," one of the tenants, Cian O'Day told Patch. "Landlords already have so much power over a such a basic need. The game is stacked in their favor, and they still chose to cheat."

Tenants from 345 Eldert St., five of which are plaintiffs in the suit, first formed their tenants' organization in April when many lost their job or were began facing financial hardship brought on by the pandemic. A large percentage of tenants at the building are artists, independent contractors or members of the gig economy, according to the association's attorney Jack Lester.

In those early weeks, Carnegie began threatening tenants with late fees on their rent payments or with negative reports to credit bureaus, despite an order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo that prohibited soliciting late fees.

The "inaccurate" reports, barred by law, created permanent financial consequences and credit damage for the tenants, the lawsuit says.

“The impact of negative credit can prevent people from renting new places, show up on job applications, block the issuance of insurance policies and prevent obtaining mortgages," Lester said. "These credit reports are utilized to make decisions about whom to grant economic resources, such as jobs, housing, credit and insurance.”

Carnegie claims that they have not charged late fees for rent accrued during the pandemic, or did anything illegal.

Some tenants, they said, were not satisfied with financial relief offers and are trying to "leverage the eviction moratorium...irrespective of their individual financial situations." The company pointed specifically to a tenant in the lawsuit who they say can pay but has refused to and another who left the apartment more than a year ago, sublet it, and has not paid rent.

Only those who refused to pay or negotiate, or ignored their communications, were sent to a collection agency, Carnegie said.

"It is standard practice of landlords to refer tenants who owe arrears to collection agencies, but we only do it as a last resort, if we are unable to reach an amicable agreement with a tenant or former tenant," a spokesperson told Patch.

Tenants say Carnegie has refused to collectively bargain with the association and continued to send threats to individual tenants despite a letter in April asking for all communications to go through their lawyer.

The tenant who moved out did so because there was black mold in the apartment, they said.

"Rather than engage in good faith negotiation, they've attempted to isolate individual tenants while at the same time engaging in a campaign of harassment and intimidation and credit referral threats," O'Day said. "The bottom line is that they've refused to recognize the tenants' association and refused to negotiate with the tenants' association."