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I've been living in my Bensonhurst area apartment for almost a year, and I am fed up with its poor conditions that seem to be getting worse. When I first moved in, the building was fine for a pre-war building, but now it is intolerable.
I've dealt with roaches, bed bugs and now mice. The security on the front door has been occasionally turned off a few times in the past couple of months, which means anyone could come in and do God knows what. The lights for the fire exits were out for nearly a month last fall, and now the lighting in the stairwell that I sometimes use has been out for nearly a week. In the halls, the paint is peeling and the carpeting needs cleaning badly. I feel like I'm living in sub-standard conditions, and this is a middle-income building, not some lower or ultra rich place.
I'm going to start looking for a new place to live because I am so fed up with this. Too bad I can't afford many apartments in NYC with my low salary. I already am in a roommating situation and I was lucky to afford this. But I can't live in a building with poor sanitation and unsafe, lousy conditions. It's just too much.
I know a lot of buildings in NYC, particularly Brooklyn, aren't exactly stellar places, but how many have the same problems as mine? I feel so ashamed to live like this. It is so gross. BTW, my roommate is going to contact the landlady. She's usually quick to respond and provide exterminators, but this is getting ridiculous.
Next time you are about to sign a lease, first check the DOB website to see if there are complaints or open violations in that building about vermin, roaches, etc. It's not necessarily going to be a fail-safe method to make sure you find a good building, but it's one free tool at your disposal, so you may as well use it.
Never really had any issues with the interior/exterior of the buildings That being said, I have lived in pretty nice buildings and we still, occasionally, have roaches and mice. My previous building had a daytime doorman and the coop I'm in now always has extermination sign-up sheets. (Just like my last building.) The problem is sharing a very large building with tons of people, garbage chutes and keeping the garbage inside until pick-up. Since that's the case, I don't see how we'd ever be vermin free. I will say that I don't see these creatures regularly and my cats usually kill anything, even a fruit fly, if it enters the apartment. (BTW-My last building looked gorgeous and they did some really nice improvements the three or four years I lived there. My current building is also very nice and I live on Shore Road. I think to be free of vermin I'd have to live in a house.)
Next time you are about to sign a lease, first check the DOB website to see if there are complaints or open violations in that building about vermin, roaches, etc. It's not necessarily going to be a fail-safe method to make sure you find a good building, but it's one free tool at your disposal, so you may as well use it.
Thanks for this. Unfortunately, when I checked my building on that site, the only violation listed was elevator problems over the years. Nothing on bed bugs, mice, security problems, etc. I even checked other sites and there are few complaints listed. The Bed Bug Registry has only three complaints in the last four years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by city living
Never really had any issues with the interior/exterior of the buildings That being said, I have lived in pretty nice buildings and we still, occasionally, have roaches and mice. My previous building had a daytime doorman and the coop I'm in now always has extermination sign-up sheets. (Just like my last building.) The problem is sharing a very large building with tons of people, garbage chutes and keeping the garbage inside until pick-up. Since that's the case, I don't see how we'd ever be vermin free. I will say that I don't see these creatures regularly and my cats usually kill anything, even a fruit fly, if it enters the apartment. (BTW-My last building looked gorgeous and they did some really nice improvements the three or four years I lived there. My current building is also very nice and I live on Shore Road. I think to be free of vermin I'd have to live in a house.)
My building is like that too. Its a bit of relief to hear that because I was starting to wonder if I should accept the rodent and vermin problem as typical of a NYC apartment building, or would I be crazy to do so. I'm trying to get a new job so I could afford a new place, since my salary doesn't allow much options now. Part of me just wants to risk my budget to get a better place, but if rodents and vermins would be anywhere, then that's not worth the risk. Still, its so skin-crawling and embarrassing to be living in this place. Its just, eesh!
Maybe when I look for a new place, I'll aim for those small buildings or large houses that have four floors with an apartment on each floor. That is, if I can get those.
ETA: In the nine months since I've been here, I've seen roaches a handful of times and the mice problem is only two weeks old. So, my building is not that infested. I dealt with bed bugs for three months though, thanks to a lousy exterminator.
Last edited by CielArdent9; 02-03-2014 at 05:27 AM..
For some reason, NYC outlawed garbage disposals until fairly recently. If apartment buildings had garbage disposals, you could say goodbye to the roaches and rats.
Thanks for this. Unfortunately, when I checked my building on that site, the only violation listed was elevator problems over the years. Nothing on bed bugs, mice, security problems, etc. I even checked other sites and there are few complaints listed. The Bed Bug Registry has only three complaints in the last four years.
HPD would be more appropriate to check for complaints regarding vermin, etc:
For some reason, NYC outlawed garbage disposals until fairly recently. If apartment buildings had garbage disposals, you could say goodbye to the roaches and rats.
Garbage disposals are installed under sinks.....you sure this is what you meant?
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
For some reason, NYC outlawed garbage disposals until fairly recently. If apartment buildings had garbage disposals, you could say goodbye to the roaches and rats.
Only if they were mandated because no landlord is going to put them in on his own accord. And when they
break good luck in getting them replaced.
I think buildings in general just have issues. I am now living in a building for the first time in my life, and I hate it. It's an expensive condo building, and it looks beautiful from the outside and inside, but I have had ant problems since moving in. Even in the dead of winter.
I am moving out in a few weeks, that's how bad it is. I don't think I would ever living a building again.
I have had three exterminators come and still have ants. It's disgusting.
NYC has very old housing stock. I would guesstimate maybe as much as 35-40% of the current housing stock is in poor condition.
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