Landlord Raphael Toledano Will Pay $3M For Tenant Harassment: AG

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Notorious landlord Raphael Toledano will have to pay some $3 million in damages for harassing tenants in rent-stabilized homes, the New York Attorney General announced Thursday.

Toledano — known for buying up a portfolio of East Village buildings in his mid-20s, many of which were foreclosed — will have to pay $3 million under the settlement, Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday.

Further, Toledano is not allowed to have direct contact with tenants and will be required to hire an independent management company for the properties, according to the AG.

"Access to safe, affordable housing is a right," James said in a statement. "Putting profits over people is unacceptable, and my office will hold any landlord accountable who violates the law to increase their bottom line."

Under no circumstance should tenants be subjected to the harassment perpetuated by landlords like Raphael Toledano," she added.

If he violates the terms, said James's office, he could be fined $10 million. James would also seek a "lifetime bar against further participation in the real estate industry," her office said.

The state began investigating Toledano's tactics after complaints from tenants and advocates regarding accusations of harassment, unsafe construction, and pushing tenants from their rent-stabilized apartments.

The investigation found that Toledano would try to coerce tenants to move out through buyouts as well as illegal construction practices, per the AG.

Back in 2015, tenants on East 13th Street took Toledano to court after audio and video revealed intimidation from building management. He ultimately settled for $1 million. Earlier this year, the AG said Toledano was using bankruptcy as a strategy to deny rent-regulated rents at the East 13th Street building.

Toledano had also pretended to be a lawyer and advertise apartments with three and four bedrooms when they could only legally have one or two, the AG said. Once, in 2016, Toledano held an "ice cream social" to appease another property's tenants who had gone without working cooking gas for nearly three months.

"We feel that he consciously and strategically tried to make our lives as his tenants unnecessarily upsetting and difficult," Jim Markowich, a former tenant in the East Village on East Fifth Street, said in a statement. "For example, there was sudden, unannounced, slap-dash demolition work that released elevated levels of lead dust into buildings where toddlers were living."

Ben Brafman, Toledano's lawyer, said that they are "very pleased" the settlement resolves legal matters for Toledano.

Toledano "looks forward to working carefully in the future and has the potential to be one of the most successful young real estate entrepreneurs in the city now that these issues have been resolved," Brafman said in a statement.

Tenants advocacy groups Community Development Project and Cooper Square Committee alerted the AG to the case.

"Rent-regulated tenants in Raphael Toledano's buildings faced intense displacement pressure, but many chose to stay and fight rather than accept buyout offers or succumb to the alleged harassment," housing organizer with Cooper Square Liam Reilly said in a statement.