Joe Franco is incredibly cautious when heading to the back of his building to throw out the trash.

“It’s the Bronx Zoo back there,” said Franco, a 40-year resident of the building, who’s noticed a rat infestation in the building, with the critters often spotted hopping over trash cans.

It’s on a list of problems at 241 E. 207th St., an 11-unit building between Bainbridge and Perry avenues in Norwood that Franco, along with a litany of residents, want to see fixed. Adding insult to injury is suspicions their landlord is looking to kick the tenants out. The problems have grown so severe they’ve enlisted the help of West Bronx Housing executive director Sally Dunford to pressure the landlord into improving conditions.

When Franco first moved into the building he said it was beautiful. His original landlord was great. “I loved the guy,” he said. Since then, Franco has had six landlords all the while seeing his building conditions deteriorate. For another tenant, Ivania Silva, the conditions are so bad she finds herself constantly cleaning while also having to look out for her dog’s safety. “This is the dog’s dog bowl, and the dog wouldn’t eat for a while because the rats kept jumping into the bowl, and he was too scared to eat,” Silva said. She had to retrain the dog to overcome his fear.

Dunford took a previous landlord from the building to court 20 years ago over negligence. Now, it seems history is repeating itself, with the current landlord ignoring pleas to get the building fixed. “It looks like he wants to empty this building and that’s not acceptable,” she said, referring to the current landlord, Oval Realty LLC, who Dunford claims is trying to remove the tenants by offering them a buyout in the range of $5,000 to $10,000.

According to Dunford, if a landlord causes tenants enough distress they are more likely to move, saving a landlord money on court fees, and buyouts. “We would recommend to somebody if they are going to take an offer from a landlord, they shouldn’t accept anything less than $40-$50,000 because they are not going to find another affordable apartment,” Dunford said.

Currently, there are 72 open violations for the property on the New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) website. Listed violations include defective carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, exposure to lead paint, and several needed repairs along with the presence of rats.

Norwood News reached out to Oval Realty LLC several times but they were unavailable for comment. Oval Realty LLC also own the parking lot adjacent to the building.

“Joe is the originally unmovable object, and the landlord is going to have to come to grips that this is not going to happen easily,” Dunford said.