For us, it appears to be one maniac owner after another. We have an issue with a landlord, who, after being confronted with the possibility that his building is rent stabilized, is threatening that he will destroy parts of the building, call the city and the city will do his job for him and vacate us, despite what our rights are.
He has already knocked down the walls of a garage like structure attached to the back of the building. His workers did this without a permit, and one of the workers said, "I have worked for him for a long time, and he knows how to get people out."
They left all the bricks and debris there and never came to clean it up. It was reported twice to the DOB and the Fire Dept was here once, but left after about 10 minutes. The tenants have been educated that repeatedly complaining to the city could play into the owner's hands. We do not want to go through the horror of a vacate order.
If that is the case, what rights does a tenant have, short of literally watching the owner send people to destroy the premises? If we know what he's capable of, and are aware of his plans, what can we do to stop it without causing the city to shut our building down?