Elcorno Martin

leeho

I just came across this story about this local landlord. I rented from him in 1998 and he was absolutely the worst! Has anyone else ever dealt with him? I'll share a couple of my stories later, but this article is completely disturbing and if you click on the link you can see the pics of the apartment. Anybody have some crazy Elcorno stories?

http://www.brooklyndowntownstar.com/StoryDisplay.asp?Headline=Holiday Hell For These Tenants&PID=4&NewsStoryID=5094

Dateline : Thursday, December 28, 2006
Holiday Hell For These Tenants
By Phil Guie

While Doris Lee spent Christmas in a nursing home, her son Darnell gathered up several prized belongings from her Prospect Heights apartment. Now he can remove those items at a moment's notice - a distinct advantage considering that the landlord will likely repossess the unit by New Year's Day.

Doris has lived on the ground floor of 473 St. John's Place since 1991. Darnell started visiting when she took ill in 1996, and watched over the apartment during a series of lengthy hospital stays for his mother.

He blamed her past medical woes, especially bronchial issues that led to a congestive heart condition, on mold that grew along the apartment walls. The landlord, Elcorno Martin, allegedly spent years neglecting to alleviate the problem.

Adding insult to injury, Darnell said that Martin is now trying to make it look as if he moved in after Doris started recuperating at hospitals. While a number of Darnell's personal effects clearly litter the residence, he denied ever making any agreement to pay rent.

In recent Kings County court papers, Martin claimed that Darnell owes him approximately $12,500. He took Doris to court both in 2003 and 2005, asserting that she owes $42,000 in back rent.

Through Doris' illness and eventual relocation to a nursing home this past April, living conditions in the apartment have steadily declined, to the point where cracks adorn the walls and ceiling, and holes in the floor allow rats and cockroaches access. Other serious defects include exposed wiring, a front door hanging on a single hinge, and a shower that could potentially collapse. "All I need is to body slam somebody against it," Darnell warned.

Darnell said that he has repeatedly contacted Martin, who allegedly owns several buildings all over Franklin Avenue, to get the problems taken care of. But so far, very little improvement has taken place. "The landlord doesn't care," Darnell said. "You can look at this apartment and tell."

Currently, whenever he sends anyone to make repairs, Darnell claims the person shows up several days late, if at all. As a result, the New York State Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) must pick up the slack, which he says inconveniences the tenants while doing little to hurt the negligent landlord.

"HPD sends people, but they never do nothing," Darnell said. "They tell the landlord, he says he'll fix it. If he doesn't fix it, they come out and fix it [themselves], and that's rarely. Come on. Something's wrong with the system."

For the record, both Darnell and his mother have refused to pay rent since 2002, after Martin purportedly failed to fix leaks in their apartment. But the Star's investigation turned up an additional tenant living in 473 St. John's Place, who claimed to have received little service, despite paying on time in recent months.

Construction worker Eugenio Magan, whose mother Eugenia has occupied a ground floor apartment for ten years, asked to have tiles in the living room fixed, as well as a sagging wall in the bedroom repaired.

While the request was made some time ago, the work has yet to take place. Magan said that the HPD employees who stop by the building are paid by Martin, which is why few repairs happen. "They just write reports," he said. "They're not doing anything."

In addition, he claimed that the landlord does not pay a superintendent to fix anything, meaning most problems become prolonged headaches. "He tries to do it all himself," Magan said. "The building is supposed to have a super. Sometimes, there won't be hot water for two or three days, and we've got to go through HPD."

Does negligence also extend to crookedness? As it happens, Magan recently took Martin to court after the latter claimed that his mother did not pay any rent between last June and November. Magan said that was a total lie.

He said Martin wanted to put his mother out in order to raise the rent on the apartment, and accused him of preying on a harmless old lady. To prove his point, he showed a receipt for November's rent, in which the landlord appeared to credit monies to a different apartment.

"My mother paid," Magan said. "He put another apartment on the receipt and claimed she didn't. They think they can do this kind of stuff with old people, [because] they are scared, but I check to make sure everything is okay."

According to Darnell, Doris has been out of work since 1996, but never received workers compensation or any pension, which he said she was entitled to as a city employee. Due to her illness and the red tape she found herself tangled up in, she became discouraged and never bothered retaining legal counsel. "I already had my life to live, and it didn't occur to me to pursue it," Darnell admitted. "Now I realize how important it is."

As for Darnell, he is also without work. He said that he has depression stemming from the trauma of watching Doris' condition deteriorate. "It takes a lot out of me," he said. "Now it's all about taking care of a loved one."