Tenants are displaced by landlords using unsavory and sometimes illegal tactics all over the Bronx, oftentimes because the tenants are unaware of the value in having concrete lease agreements when renting an apartment.

But in other cases, a change in management of a building leaves the new landlord cleaning up the messes of the previous one. In the case of Rebecca Smith, Paula Matheson, and Haskell Shabi neither the tenant nor landlord regulations could rectify their situation and ended in two evictions and an investment turned into a money pit.

The property, 3176 Bainbridge Ave., was once owned by Benedict (Benny) Walsh, who also owned a building in Brooklyn. Walsh not only disregarded all complaints made by Smith, Matheson and other tenants, but allegedly had been evicting tenants from their apartments without offering a reason, according to interviews with tenants. There wasn’t even a written eviction notice and didn’t allow the tenants enough time to find other living arrangements.

“When I moved in, I was aware the landlord didn’t give me a lease, but I didn’t know that it was an unregulated building,” Smith said. “I wasn’t necessarily concerned about the lease because in the beginning I did trust the landlord.”

However shortly into her 10-year stay, Smith grew accustomed to being without basic essential services that most landlords are supposed to provide such as heat and hot water. In all of her time there, her ceiling was leaking in four different places. To get by, she used buckets all around her apartment to keep it from flooding. Despite that, she still stayed because the rent was cheap.

“We had no privacy,” said Matheson. “When I went to work, these three men were in my apartment and Benny said they were workers fixing things in my apartment, but nothing had changed and then my toilet was broken.”

Matheson once had a lease at the building, but didn’t get a renewal for 2016. Which was when Walsh began the process of evicting Smith, Matheson and other tenants.

“The landlord can choose to give you a lease or not,” explained Sally Dunford, the executive director of West Bronx Housing. “Tenants in these cases have the right to due process only.” Due process, in this case, means that tenants cannot be locked out, have their things displaced by the landlord, or have services disconnected.

In May, Walsh informed the tenants that he had sold the building to Haskell Shabi, transferred all of their deposits to him and left Shabi’s name and contact information before leaving.

“The landlord before me did not fix their boilers for nine years. I fixed all of their boilers, tended to all of their complaints, and I was very respectful of [Smith and Matheson]. And I did everything legally,” Shabi told the Norwood News.

When Shabi bought the building, tenants didn’t have leases, opening the door for Shabi to legally evict them. And with the amount of rent that he knew he could get for the apartments versus what Smith and Matheson were paying, he chose to evict. Shabi explained that this action was needed in order to turn a profit on his investment in the building, otherwise he would be losing money.

“It was a Catch-22 situation. The repairs were finally done, but of no benefit to me,” Smith said. “When everything was fixed, he said, ‘I’ve done my part, now you do yours,’ as in he wanted me to get out.”

Matheson claims Shabi used more forceful tactics to get her out of her apartment. “He would harass me and call late at night trying to get me out of the apartment,” she said.

Both Smith and Matheson have since moved out and into new apartments. However the search for apartments was not easy and both wish they were still living on Bainbridge Avenue.

Shabi has contacted Smith to return her security deposit, but won’t be giving Matheson her deposit back. Legally, Shabi can keep the security deposit given the $8,000 in repairs he made to Matheson’s former apartment, claiming the conditions went beyond normal wear and tear.

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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.