Warren Chan – He Isn’t Playing Politics
We have been waiting for the bill to stop illegal conversions in Brooklyn for a long time. Then along comes Warren Chan to defend the residents.
OKAY so wait a minute. He’s speaking out and talking for the residents.
And part of what Warren Chan is saying is correct, but he didn’t explain it well.
There are illegal conversions in Brooklyn. The owners who converted those buildings knew that converting them was illegal.
Warren Chan is correct in saying that people have been converting their homes illegally for years. Seven years ago, we looked for a home from Bay Ridge to Gravesend. We saw 66 homes before purchasing our house. Many of the homes we saw, we liked, but they had illegal bathrooms and the homeowner sealed the bathroom with a wall. At first I didn’t notice it, but Lee kept pointing it out and it became easy to detect after seeing the same thing in more than 15-20 homes. Each time we saw a great home with an illegal wall, we said, “this house won’t pass an inspection.” The realtors would try to assure us that they had a guy who could get it to pass the inspection. And they would encourage us to buy the home because we could “remove the wall and use the bathroom after we purchased the home”, but we didn’t want to deal with even trying to close on a home like that.
The picture below was my dream home in Bay Ridge. Notice that all of the walls on the first floor were removed. That’s the beauty of this house, but the work wasn’t done legally. It’s 7 years later and the home still has not been sold. Why? Because the new owners can’t get a mortgage or past closing with a building that has structural problems. There is no Certificate of Occupancy and one can’t be issued until the home is restored. It’s almost seven years later and the home still doesn’t have a CO.
The realtor that listed the property above was sneaky. She did not tell us this and kept pushing for us to put a downpayment. I asked her, “Was the work done legally and can the home pass an inspection? She said she didn’t known and then added: “ask the owner – he’s right there.” She knew. The owner acted sketchy so I went home to searched for the house online and I found Acris. It’s the reason I wrote about how to buy a home in Brooklyn on this blog.
I like that Warren Chan is sticking up for the hard working families in the community who had no idea they rented an illegal apartment. Chan should enlist the help of his allies, Gentile, Abbate, as well as NY Bar Association and the NYC Rent Guidelines Board.
Councilman Gentile has always been fighting for people in his area. This week, I saw Gentile supported Irene Chu as the new head of the Stars and Stripes Political Club, as well as recommending that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams appoint her to the community board. It’s apparent that Assemblyman Peter Abbate is also supporting Asian members his his political club. Gentile’s bill was always to provide for the tenants!
I’m glad to see Warren Chan voicing his opinion and that of the community. The more voices there are, the better this community will be. Brooklyn has always been about the people. Oh and I think Chan should find a candidate to run against Mark Treyger because Treyger isn’t doing a good job representing Coney Island.
Hugs,
marlene
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