Ocean Landlord Fined $3,750

Thomas Breen photo

Landlord attorney Ian Gottlieb, landlord Shmuel Aizenberg (behind Gottlieb), and state prosecutor Donna Parker in court on Tuesday.

One of New Haven’s largest landlords pleaded guilty to 15 now-fixed different housing code violations, was hit with $3,750 in court-ordered fines, and has parted ways with a leading local property management company.

That’s the latest with the local megalandlord Ocean Management.

On Tuesday morning in a third-floor courtroom at 121 Elm St., Ocean Management principal Shmuel Aizenberg pleaded guilty to a total of 15 different housing code violations — all of which have now been addressed — at three of his company’s New Haven rental properties. 

Those Ocean-controlled properties are the two-family house at 133 Plymouth St., the two-family house at 267 James St., and the three-family house at 167 Scranton St.

In court on Tuesday, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Parker said that Livable City Initiative (LCI) housing code inspectors found several violations” at these buildings last summer, including decayed gutters, overgrown vegetation, rubbish, flaking paint, [and] railings missing.” 

The original housing code violation letters for these properties also showed that LCI found a leaking roof and a damp bathroom ceiling at 267 James St. in July 2021, and holes in the roof, molded drywall, and a damp ceiling at 167 Scranton St. last October. (Click here and here to read those orders.)

All of these properties have been remedied,” Parker said on Tuesday. 

That is: all of the problems that LCI initially found have now been fixed.

Gottlieb, Aizenberg, and Parker.

As part of Aizenberg’s deal with the state, Parker continued, the landlord has agreed to plead guilty to five different code violations at each of the three properties — and to pay the maximum penalty of $250 per violation.” 

That’s $3,750 in total.

How do you plead” to each of these municipal code violations under state statute 7 – 148(c)(10)? Parker asked.

Guilty,” Aizenberg replied in each case.

State Superior Court Judge Anthony Avallone then accepted the pleas and handed down his judgment, including the $3,750 in fines.

Thomas Breen file photo

Aizenberg after a recent court appearance.

In a phone interview with the Independent Tuesday afternoon, Aizenberg stressed that all of the housing code violations covered by these three criminal housing court cases have now been addressed.

What took so long to get them fixed?

All of the apartments were occupied,” he said. Ocean needed to arrange times with tenants for property maintenance crews to come by and make repairs, and then schedule re-inspections with LCI.

It took us time to fix it,” he said. But now all are good.”

How does he plan on staying on top of maintenance going forward to make sure that he doesn’t end up pleading guilty and paying fines for housing code violations again?

We are working now very closely with the city, with LCI,” he said. We have a very good relationship.” He said he has three people on staff who are dedicated strictly to responding to city orders and concerns from inspectors.

And is his company still looking to sell hundreds of local apartments for $52 million?

Yes, Aizenberg said. We have two serious offers,” though no potential buyer has closed on the deal yet.

Click here to read about how Aizenberg pleaded guilty to two different housing code violations and agreed to pay $500 in fines in two separate criminal housing courts last fall. And here to read another a recent Independent story about a different local megalandlord who got hit with over $5,000 in fines for 21 housing code violations.

Aizenberg has defended his company as investing millions of dollars every year into fixing up and maintaining Ocean’s local rental properties, and he has criticized LCI for being poor communicators with landlords about what needs to be fixed, when.

Farnam Splits

Farnam Realty CEO Eric Lopez and Founder Carol Horsford.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, Aizenberg, Farnam Realty Group Founder Carol Horsford, and Farnam Realty Group CEO Eric Lopez confirmed that, as of April 30, Farnam is no longer doing property management and maintenance work for Aizenberg’s company.

We finished in a nice way. We continue to be friends,” Aizenberg said. I thank them for everything they did” since first signing on with Ocean in December. It’s a business matter. They make a decision not to continue, and I respect that.”

Since December, Farnam’s staff had taken on a host of project management” responsibilities for Ocean, Horsford said, including addressing LCI-found housing code violations, bringing apartments out of abatement,” fixing up vacant apartments to get them ready to be leased out to new tenants, and a host of other maintenance and repair work.

We got a lot of problems solved,” Horsford said. We got so much work accomplished” in those five months.

Why did they decide to sever ties with Ocean on April 30?

They wanted to keep control of certain” decision-making parts of the business, Lopez said, and it wasn’t running smoothly.” 

He and Horsford said that Ocean’s staff remained responsible for collecting rent and handling Section 8 federal subsidies, while Farnam was responsible for the property fix-up work.

Now that the property maintenance work is going back in house to Ocean’s staff, Lopez said, Ocean will have what in the army we would call: unity of command.’ ” (Lopez is a retired former colonel.)

We gave a respite to their crew” through the winter, Horsford said about Farnam’s property management work for Ocean. 

Now, Aizenberg said, he has hired back some of the maintenance crews he had let go after contracting out work to Farnam.

He said he has 12 people on staff to handle maintenance requests and concerns at Ocean’s 1,000-plus New Haven apartments.

We have a new field manager now, a new property manager. I think we’re OK,” Aizenberg said.

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