Harassment Complaints

Harassment by an owner is a course of action intended to force a tenant out of his/her apartment or to cause a tenant to give up rights granted the tenant by the Rent Stabilization Law or Rent Control Law.
No owner or anyone acting for the owner may interfere with a tenant's privacy, comfort, or quiet enjoyment of the tenant's apartment. Interference includes reducing services or engaging in baseless court proceeding.

The Shalom Tenants Alliance believes the Shaloms force tenants to give up their apartments through coercion, intimidation, creation of hostile living environments, ceaseless construction, violations of the Warranty of Habitability, illegal rent/lease administration practices, baseless court proceedings, and more. In March 2006, rent-regulated tenants from several Shalom buildings filed harassment complaints as a group with DHCR (Division of Housing and Community Renewal). Read on for details of our complaints and how you can participate!

Read Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's letter of support >>

Want to participate?

Our goal is for DHCR to recognize harassment based upon a pattern across multiple buildings. We know the pattern exists . . but we have to prove it to DHCR. The more complaints are filed, the clearer the pattern will be.

If you already filed a harassment complaint on your own, click here.

If you want to join this action and file a harassment complaint, here's what you need to do:

• Read DHCR's summaries of Shalom tenants' complaints above. Attend conferences if you can!
• Review DHCR's Fact Sheet on Harassment
• Download DHCR's Harassment Complaint form (pdf)
• READ the instructions on the form!
• Fill out the form.
  • On the "Mailing Address of Owner" and "Managing Agent" lines, BE SURE to write "Ohebshalom Family, D/B/A" plus your building's shell company owner name / managing agent name. You can find the shell company name and managing agent name by looking up your building on this website here.
  • In Part III, item #8, name the Shalom Tenants Alliance, c/o Cooper Square Committee, 61 E. 4th Street. New York, NY 10003. This will authorize Shalom Tenants Alliance members to attend your conference and DHCR to send us copies of correspondence relating to your case -- which will, in turn, help us to make our case for harassment based upon patterns city-wide.
• In Part V of the form, write "see attached letter" or something similar. Don't try to make your case in the space provided!
• Write a letter describing the harassment you have endured. Here are some tips:
  • Your complaint should not focus on repair issues alone. A harassment complaint based only on repair issues will be rejected. However, you should include repair issues that show how the landlord is trying to get you out of your apartment or force you to give up your legal rights.
  • Write a clear description of the problem(s). Try to provide enough examples and documentation to make the "picture" clear to someone who knows absolutely nothing about your situation.
  • Your complaint may be a one-page statement or a 200-page dissertation. If you have a complaint of the dissertation variety with a lot of documentation, organize your examples into "exhibits,"divided into sections, and refer to the exhibits in your letter.
  • No matter what, make your complaint REALLY easy for DHCR to review (contact Shalom Tenants Alliance if you need help).
  • Be sure to ask DHCR to add your complaint to the complaints previously filed as a group by Shalom tenants.
• Make four copies of your complaint, plus one for yourself. Send three copies to DHCR, according to the instructions, and send the fourth copy to Shalom Tenants Alliance, c/o Cooper Square Committee, 61 E. 4th Street. New York, NY 10003. (You may email it to us if that's possible.)
• Email us and let us know you've filed your complaint!

Have you already filed a harassment complaint on your own?

If you previously filed a harassment complaint with DHCR against your Shalom landlord and would like DHCR to consider your complaint in the context of the Shaloms' citywide pattern of harassment, please do the following:

1. Write a letter to DHCR, addressed to the attention of Jon Wallach and the DHCR attorney handling your case, asking that your case be reviewed with the Shalom Tenants Alliance complaints filed as a group and considered as part of the Shalom landlords' pattern of harassment. It may be useful to include a list of the Case Numbers above for the benefit of your current DHCR attorney. In your letter, be sure to authorize the Shalom Tenants Alliance (Shalom Tenants Alliance, c/o Cooper Square Committee, 61 E. 4th Street. New York, NY 10003) to attend your conferences/hearings and receive copies of correspondence relating to your case.
2. Contact the Shalom Tenants Alliance and tell us about your complaint and its current status. If possible, send us copies of your complaint, your conference summary, and any other correspondence/documentation relating to your case. This will help us to better understand and represent the overall pattern of harassment.

Let's put an end to the harassment!!!!