--- title: Cities vs. slumlords - The Hustle description: NYC’s attorney general fines a company for trying to force low-income tenants out so it could flip their units. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1851730080-HS-News-Brief_2022-08-09T215255.196Z.webp --- # Cities vs. slumlords ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: August 10, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 When a new company acquired her rent-stabilized Brooklyn apartment, Maria de la Rosa refused a buyout. Then came the leaks and the rats. ![Cities vs. slumlords](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1851730080-HS-News-Brief_2022-08-09T215255.196Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1851730080-HS-News-Brief_2022-08-09T215255.196Z.webp) According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, it was part of a scheme to oust tenants, flip their apartments, and make bank. #### **Who’d do such a thing?** Ink Property Group LLC, [apparently](https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2022/attorney-general-james-stops-new-york-city-landlords-harassed-rent-stabilized). It bought up dozens of units, largely in low-income communities of color. Tenants were illegally offered buyouts to leave. Those who stayed were harassed — [against the law](https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/tenantharassment-nyc.pdf) in NYC — with some watching as their buildings became uninhabitable through construction or neglect. Ink also: - Lied to banks to get more favorable loans. - Averaged **~26** housing violations per building, including having lead-based paint. #### **And now?** Ink will pay up to **$1.75m** to an NYC agency that helps create affordable housing and **$400k+** in restitution to the tenants. Meanwhile, 28 units will return to permanently affordable housing. While anti-tenant harassment laws don’t solve the nationwide housing crisis or [skyrocketing rent](https://thehustle.co/why-is-rent-skyrocketing/), many municipalities think they can help prevent homelessness. - [California](https://www.tobenerlaw.com/landlord-harassment/) already has anti-tenant harassment laws, with individual cities [adding](https://www.kqed.org/news/11917071/more-california-cities-are-outlawing-harassment-by-landlords) their own ordinances to further define them. **Case in point: **A Santa Monica, California, landlord was recently ordered to pay [$65k](https://www.smdp.com/65000-settlement-in-local-tenant-harassment-case/219656) for illegally harassing and evicting a tenant. 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Borrow someone’s house](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/524570425-19-News-Brief_2023-04-20T224100.000Z.webp) ### Wanna travel cheap? Borrow someone’s house - ![Are people buying houses again?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/864388489-HS-News-Brief_2023-02-03T015826.025Z.webp) ### Are people buying houses again? - ![Fractional investing is making everyone a landlord… kinda](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1161833518-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMarch2031202023toomanylandlords.webp) ### Fractional investing is making everyone a landlord… kinda Pop up for Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t. JOIN FREE ### 100% Free CRM Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. 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