Reduction in Services Complaint

Rent stabilized tenants in this building pay for services that have not been provided, including

• 24-hour security (the doorman is often absent and the doors often open)
• a reopened backyard
• window blinds repairs and replacement
• a safe front stair banister
• a consistently working intercom

and more.

Since the law prohibits landlords from cutting the services of rent stabilized tenants (unless the landlord also cuts the rent), and complaints are strongest if

• filed within 4 years of entering rent stabilization
• with many tenants signing on

the Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association filed a complaint for reduction of building-wide services with the New York State Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR). Submitted on December 22, 2008, it is within the four years since we left Mitchell-Lama and entered rent stabilization on January 7, 2005. (Click here to read the complaint - but it may take a while to open since it is over 50 pages long. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to see it - and can download it for free. As of mid-February, it had been assigned Docket Number WL-430021-B)

And 165 tenants signed onto the complaint! - representing about 3/4 of the rent stabilized tenants in the building - and that was just those who were available to sign within a two-day period. Those signatures make the complaint much stronger.

THANKS to all those who signed on and who supported the effort by documenting problems with your e-mails and notes, and by sitting at tables, collecting signatures.

The complaint may well take a year to resolve. We hope that Stellar will provide the services for which we are paying.