Landlord let adjacent apartment fall to ruin

[Juletta]

My building is about half regulated, half non-regulated. I'm non-regulated. Previously, when a regulated tenant left, the landlord completely gutted and renovated the apartment and started renting it at market rate. (That's where ours came from.)

Last year, the regulated tenant was evicted from the apartment next to mine for non-payment of rent. The landlord started the preliminary gutting process-ripping out door frames etc.--then just stopped cold. Inside the apartment is a mess--a jumble of furniture, housewares, old food, torn-up walls and flooring, filthy appliances, etc.

Now that it's been 6+ months since they stopped work, we are starting to have major vermin problems coming from there. Mice, roaches, ants, etc. are coming into our apartment from that one and there's no way to seeal up all our access points. Exterminating either apartment isn't going to help as long as the place stays the disaster that it is. They need to finish the gutting and clean out the debris, probably 3+ dumpsters' worth.

Do we as tenants have any rights here? When we moved in, the apartment was occupied, clean, and no problem at all. Now that it's an abandoned dump, it's quite a problem.

[concord]

As nobody has posted a response to your inquiry, give this department a call; they may be able to guide you.

Sanitation Police: 718 714 2715