NYC's worst landlords list 2023: Worst offender piled up 3,200 violations in 15 buildings

Living in New York has enough challenges, made worse when your building faces a number of violations from the city, ranging from hot water outages to nonfunctioning heat units.

Each year, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams releases a list of the worst landlords in the city based on average open violations.

This year, landlord Daniel Ohebshalom, along with his managing agent, Johnathan Santana, topped the list for the second straight year. Together, they were responsible for 306 units across 15 buildings on the watchlist, according to Williams.

"3,293 open violations, the most in the list's history," Williams said about the duo's violations.

Williams said the violations at Ohebshalom and Santana's buildings include heat outages, rodent infestation, and collapsing infrastructure.

One of the buildings on Williams' list from Ohebshalom and Santana is on 46th Street in Hells Kitchen where John Reeds is a tenant.

"There was a time leaking was so bad, it leaked down and flooded the boiler," Reeds told NBC New York.

Reeds showed NBC New York inside his apartment where crumbling conditions could be seen.

NBC New York made repeated efforts to reach Ohebshalom and Santana, but neither returned our calls.

"Johnathan Santana and Daniel Ohebshalom may be shameless in their negligence and predatory practices, as is clear in their record violations, but it’s clear that spotlighting and shaming them and other worst landlords in the city can have meaningful impact,”said Williams in a written statement.

Williams said Ohebshalom settled three separate lawsuits with the city totaling $4.2 million over "failures to rectify dangerous conditions at a range of buildings" since last year's list was released.

Reeds said the city made emergency repairs to the roof after the landlord had seemingly ignored complaints that the structure could buckle. The city confirmed it had made repairs to the building's roof.

"We have suffered continued abuses, both health- and life-threatening," Reeds said.

The list is put together by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development based on violations including "heat and hot water outages, rodent infestation issues, and deteriorating infrastructure." HPD ranks the "top 100 worst" landlords based on average number of open housing code violations per month on their buildings since the last list came out in December 2022.

Across the full 2023 lists, a total of 13,541 units across 626 buildings in the city were flagged.

The public advocate said tenants wondering if their landlord is on the list or seeking resources for relief can reach out to his office's text line 833-933-1692 or visit LandlordWatchlist.com

To see the entire 2023 Landlord Watchlist from New York City's public advocate, click here.