Lawsuit accuses landlord of preying on New Yorkers desperate for housing

A notorious city landlord effectively jacked up rents above what’s allowed in a scheme that preys on New Yorkers desperate to find housing, a recent lawsuit alleges.

The suit, filed in Bronx Supreme Court by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of five tenants, claims that Ved Parkash and co-defendant Luis Bello “engaged in a scheme” to circumvent rent stabilization law by creating what are known as illusory tenancies.

It alleges Parkash would lease rent-stabilized apartments to Bello, who would then sublease individual rooms to different tenants through his company, Kenny Rooms, and charge them inflated rents.

In the context of rent stabilization, illusory tenancies are a type of sublet where the person named on the lease does not actually live in the apartment, but they or the landlord — sometimes in collusion — charge the actual occupants higher rents than are allowed by rent stabilization laws.

“Between the wave of migrants coming to New York, inflation, skyrocketing rents, all of these crises happening in New York City, this kind of scheme is ripe for more landlords and more people to jump in and exploit needy tenants and people in need of housing,” said Jeanne Schoenfelder, one of the Legal Aid attorneys.

“It really just fundamentally undermines the protections of rent stabilization.”

Such arrangements, which Legal Aid lawyers suspect are happening “increasingly” across the city, often take advantage of people who are desperate to find somewhere to live. But the extent is unknown and hard to pin down, according to Jennifer Rozen, a tenant lawyer who has handled a number of such cases.

“Mostly these people target vulnerable populations, people that are undocumented, people that don’t have a lot of money or don’t have any credit, people that are sort of desperate to get housing and shelter for their families,” Rozen said. “[Tracking illusory tenancies] would be pretty difficult. And not every decision is reported and a lot of these cases settle.”

Parkash owns over 70 properties across the Bronx and Queens, according to records. In recent years he has gained notoriety for problems throughout his expansive real estate portfolio. He topped the public advocate’s “Worst Landlord” list in 2015. Since then he’s been sued for a variety of issues, according to published reports, including vermin-infested conditions and Section 8 voucher discrimination.

Many of those who turned to Kenny Rooms were New Yorkers who needed accommodation fast.

Christiena Megaly, 38, and her partner Michael Autry were desperately looking for somewhere to stay during the pandemic. When they stumbled on Kenny Rooms they took the first room they saw.

“We badly needed an affordable place to live,” Megaly, a former makeup artist, explained in an affidavit.

Conditions there were so bad that they moved again after a few months, and agreed to pay Bello $1,000 a month to rent a single room with shared common space in Wakefield, according to the lawsuit. Megaly found out later that her new roommate was also paying $1,000 — even though the entire unit’s registered legal rent was $1,117.88, the lawsuit says.

Bello did not return multiple requests for comment. Parkash told the Daily News through a spokesman that he does not comment on active litigation, and his attorneys repeatedly denied the allegations in a recent filing.

In an affidavit filed last week, Parkash claimed the plaintiffs are not his tenants and “are all strangers to me.”

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But the tenants’ troubles didn’t end with rent issues.

The suit also describes instances of Bello intimidating, harassing, changing locks and even breaking into the apartments of the people he would rent to “in furtherance of this scheme,” the lawsuit says.

One plaintiff, Angela Davis, recalled an incident in July 2022 when Bello pushed his way into her Wakefield apartment accompanied by several others. After he grabbed her son’s arm she maced him, but police “believed his story over mine” and arrested her, according to the lawsuit and her affidavit.

Davis, who is epileptic, had six seizures while in custody; the criminal case against her was later dropped, according to her affidavit.

She and three of the other plaintiffs were also “unlawfully” evicted, according to the suit, but struggled to assert their rights in court because they were not named on the leases, the lawsuit says. One of them is currently homeless.

Davis was able to get back into her home but said she and her kids have been “scarred” by their experience with Bello, her affidavit says. Two of her children have been staying with their father.

“Because I don’t have the means to move out, I’m kind of just stuck here,” Davis said.