Though he’s ranked the worst landlord in New York City, Ved Parkash told the Norwood News in a phone interview that his buildings are in “excellent” shape. But tenants have long painted a different picture that’s finally prompted the city to take action.

Residents living in several of his buildings in the northwest Bronx have formed the Parkash Tenant Coalition. The group plans to meet with the landlord to address their frustrations. To initiate their plan, the group representing 15 Parkash-owned buildings coordinated a rally against the landlord to present a letter demanding repairs. Those requests were immediately rejected by Parkash’s attorney. The requests came days after the city announced it would withhold over half a million dollars in rent subsidies to Parkash.

Roughly 100 residents and housing organizations, including those from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, gathered in front of Bronx Housing Court on June 2 to support the coalition, capping several weeks of pressure on Parkash to make repairs.

For years, tenants in Parkash-owned properties have demanded better living conditions and more humane treatment. Many residents have dealt with a number of issues in their building such as rodent infestation, boiler problems, and collapsed ceilings. But representatives from Parkash’s office, based in Queens, either hang up or don’t pick up the phone, according to residents. New York City Public Advocate Letitia James attended the rally to help these tenants seek a measure of social justice.

“Most of the residents are low-income residents,” said James, flanked by demonstrators waving signs reading, “We want housing for us” and “No tenants should be harassed.”

“A lot of them are women with children; a lot of them are senior citizens, and all they want is what everyone else wants…to live in decency and to live without these conditions,” James added.

James’ office has continued the tradition of rolling out the yearly Worst Landlords Watchlist, a website that residents can use as a resource to find out which property owners have allowed their buildings to fall into disrepair.

Violations and complaint data collected from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) and New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is used to identify the worst landlords in the city. Parkash, whose records show lives in a tony section on Long Island, where the median income is $192,000, has consistently been on the list, earning a spot on the “Dirty Dozen,” a list comprised of eight landlords who have mismanaged 12 apartment buildings in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens.

For a landlord to be on the watchlist, they must own a rental building and have the minimum threshold of open violations and complaints from HPD or DOB per unit, according to the watchlist.

Parkash’s alleged inaction to make repairs does not quite rise to the severity of a criminal case. In those cases, often taking several years to build, negligence and intent to evict tenants through intimidation tactics is usually the threshold to proceed with a charge.

“They [residents] pay their rent,” said James. “They pay their rent and are entitled to services and to live in conditions that do not threaten their safety and their lives.”

According to residents, Parkash constantly takes his residents before the judge, some have been evicted. A report by the Huffington Post said Parkash usually employs his sons, all housing attorneys, to represent him in Housing Court. Anurag Parkash, one of his sons, usually represents him.

Some have accused Parkash of deliberately holding off cashing rent checks to put tenants in arrears. “I feel like he likes to play tricks with the rent,” said Dawn Goodall, a Kingsbridge Heights resident. “I personally received a lease without the proper amount on it. I’ve been in court with him two or three times.”

Over the past few years, Parkash has received more than half a million dollars in Section 8 payments. City officials are now in the process of withholding these subsidies until repairs are made in the buildings.

Parkash owns 60 buildings in the city, with 40 in the Bronx. Among them is 2675 Creston Ave., which has 121 violations there, according to the watchlist. In all, Parkash’s portfolio of properties has accrued 5,000 violations, 4,000 of which are considered the most heinous, according to the public advocate’s office.

For more than six months, residents at the Creston Avenue building off Kingsbridge Road had no hot water.

“We had paint buckets, washed them out, boiled [water] and put it in the shower,” recalled Brigida Velenzuela, a Creston Avenue tenant who recently joined the Parkash Tenant Coalition movement.  “It seemed like everybody except for one didn’t have hot water.”

The “one” tenant Velenzuela referred to serves as an agent of Parkash. Velenzuela claimed the tenant was hired by Parkash to paint around the building and handle gardening responsibilities, in exchange for rent assistance. The tenant is not the registered super.

Problems persist in the buildings including a termite issue. “We have termites and we’ve been dealing with every single year,” said Velenzuela, who intends to follow through on spreading the word on Parkash’s alleged treatment of tenants.

“The reason I wanted to join [the Parkash Tenant Coalition movement] was because I feel like we have a say in either getting him to meet our demands or getting him out. I want to let my other neighbors know that it’s okay to speak up if they are getting harassed or [not] getting repairs. A lot of us mostly immigrants and probably some of them are undocumented so I feel like I can probably speak for them.”

Additional reporting by David Cruz.

 Editor’s Note: To reach Ved Parkash, tenants can call (917) 497-0270 or email Anurag Parkash at anurag.parkash@gmail.com.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.