Mandy Mgt.'s Menachem Gurevitch, attorney Ari Hoffman in court Tuesday.
A Mandy-owned property at 29 Dickerman St.
A state judge ordered the owner of the local megalandlord company Mandy Management to pay $5,250 in fines after he pleaded guilty to 21 different housing code violations at a handful of New Haven rental properties.
That same judge also dismissed two criminal housing court cases and continued another three that are still pending and involve another local megalandlord, Ocean Management.
State Superior Court Judge John Cirello issued those orders Tuesday morning in a third-floor courtroom at the state courthouse at 121 Elm St.
The guilty pleas and fines came at the end of four brief hearings in various criminal housing court cases involving Menachem Gurevitch, the founder and owner of Mandy Management.
Mandy Management partners with private equity firms, commercial lenders, and other out-of-town investors to invest millions of dollars every year in rental properties in and around New Haven. Affiliates of his company own tens of millions of dollars worth of low-income apartments around town, many of them with federally subsidized rents.
On Tuesday, Cirello dismissed one of Gurevitch’s criminal housing court cases, involving an alleged fire code violation at 142 Bradford Ave. in East Haven. He did so after Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Parker moved to “nolle” the matter because of a “discrepancy in the dates on the service” of documents in the case.
For Gurevitch’s other three cases before the court on Tuesday, Mandy’s owner pleaded guilty to a total of 21 different housing code violations at three different Mandy-controlled rental properties in New Haven.
Those violations — which have now all been fixed — included a persistent rodent infestation and a leaking roof at 29 Dickerman St., holes in the basement and rotten eaves at 359 Sherman Ave., and a water-damaged kitchen ceiling in danger of collapse at 314 Greenwich Ave.
The city’s housing code enforcement agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), sent out initial post-inspection repair orders for those code violations in March 2021 for the Dickerman Street property, June 2021 for the Sherman Avenue property, and July 2021 for the Greenwich Avenue property.
Click here and here for previous articles about these cases, and about the city’s stepped-up efforts to prosecute landlords accused of dragging their feet in making necessary fixes to their properties.
By pleading guilty to these 21 different counts on Tuesday and by agreeing to pay a $250 court-ordered fine for each, Gurevitch recognized the facts presented by the state prosecutor — and by extension, LCI — as accurate. The pleas also served as a recognition by the court that all of these code violations have subsequently been fixed and signed off on by the city.
Mandy Lawyer: Rehabs Prioritized
Gurevitch, Hoffman, and state's attorney Donna Parker on Tuesday.
Parker said in court on Tuesday that the $250-per-housing-code-violation fine is “the maximum penalty” allowed under state law for such violations. She also said that the state is preparing at least one more criminal housing code case against Gurevitch for yet another longstanding violation at a different local property.
“He has a right to plead out” to these three cases today, she said.
In his client’s defense, Gurevitch’s attorney, Ari Hoffman, urged the judge to put these three cases in the broader context of Mandy’s large local business.
“With respect to these violations, Mr. Gurevitch has an interest individually or through one of his companies in many, many properties in New Haven and the area,” Hoffman said.
“And this is what he does: He buys properties that are dilapidated, and he remediates them and tries to remediate them as quickly as possible. He makes those properties that were not habitable, habitable.” Hoffman also said that Gurevitch’s company employs nearly 200 maintenance workers.
Gurevitch “diligently works individually and with staff to make sure that all of these properties are habitable, are fit to live in, and I ask your honor to take the entire picture in mind,” Hoffman continued.
Two of the properties in question Tuesday were not recent purchases. According to city land records, Gurevitch’s company purchased 29 Dickerman St. in 2016 and 314 Greenwich Ave. in 2018. His company purchased 359 Sherman Ave. in April 2021.
In a separate email comment sent to the Independent after Tuesday’s hearing, Hoffman reiterated many of the points he brought up in open court.
“Menachem Gurevitch has significantly invested in New Haven and the surrounding communities,” Hoffman wrote. “He invests in properties that are in need of significant work; he rehabilitates those properties and makes them attractive places to live and raise families. He also invests in people. Mandy Management, with which the Gurevitch family is affiliated, employs over 200 local staff members, including licensed local contractors, plumbers, electricians, on-site superintendents, and property managers.
“With respect to the recent court hearing, while the more significant charge [i.e. the East Haven fire code charge] was nollied by the state, Mr. Gurevitch nevertheless takes any charge or alleged violation seriously. Mr. Gurevitch has recently implemented new systems to ensure that maintenance requests are handled promptly and effectively. This system operates 24/7. The last few years they have handled thousands of work orders, refurbished many buildings, arranged for the installation of over a hundred roofs, installed security cameras, and performed countless other repairs. Mr. Gurevitch has a great relationship with municipal departments. And while complaints are the exception, Mr. Gurevitch will continue to work hard to ensure that all the tenants have a safe and comfortable home.”
Judge: "Something Larger Here": Tenant Safety & Wellbeing
Thomas Breen file photo
Judge Cirello.
Before handing down the $5,250 in aggregate fines for these 21 violations, Cirello acknowledged the scope of Gurevitch’s business. He also admonished the local landlord for not sticking closer to the letter of local housing law.
“I understand that you own a lot of properties in New Haven, and I truly believe that your motivations, as your attorney said, are to buy dilapidated properties and rehabilitate them,” the judge said.
“What concerns me is, the way the process works is there’s typically an inspection, and then, following the inspection, there’s a reinspection to see if you’ve made those repairs. And it’s only after that takes place that criminal charges are brought. So you are given an opportunity to remediate the situation in a timely fashion.”
Cirello said that the housing code and local housing law function like a three-way contract involving the landlord, the tenant, and the state. The latter is charged with “making sure these people are living in safe conditions, and I think you just need to be a little bit more cognizant of the rules and regulations.”
“I understand you’re paying the maximum fine, and that’s probably going to affect your pocketbook to some degree,” Cirello concluded. “At the same time, there’s something larger here, and that’s the safety and wellbeing of the tenants. I just want to impress that upon you.”
2 Ocean Cases Dismissed, 3 Continued
Ocean Management property manager Danielle Trivers and attorney Ian Gottlieb in court on Tuesday.
267 James St., one of three Ocean-controlled properties with housing code violations that have led to the state's prosecution of Shmuel Aizenberg.
Also on Tuesday, Cirello held hearings on five separate criminal housing court cases involving Ocean Management founder and president Shmuel Aizenberg.
Aizenberg was not in court in person Tuesday, because, his lawyer Ian Gottlieb stated, he’s out of the country for the holiday of Purim. Instead, Ocean Management staffer Danielle Trivers joined Gottlieb in court for Tuesday’s hearings.
At Parker’s request, Cirello dismissed two of the cases against Aizenberg, and continued the other three until March 29.
The cases the judge dismissed involved alleged housing code violations at 40 Henry St. and at 40 Shelton Ave. The former was dismissed because the code issues have been addressed, the latter because Ocean recently sold the property to Mandy Management, and Aizenberg is therefore no longer responsible for the fixes.
According to a LCI housing code violation order sent to Aizenberg on May 12, 2021, the code violations at 40 Henry St. included rodent and roach infestations, holes in various walls, rotted eaves, and chipping paint. And according to a LCI housing code violation order sent to Gurevitch on Feb. 24, housing code violations at 40 Shelton Ave. included a broken refrigerator, a damaged rug, and loose floorboards in the right rear bedroom of the first-floor apartment.
The three cases that were continued to March 29, meanwhile, involved housing code violations that LCI has found at 133 Plymouth St., 267 James St., and 167 Scranton St.
A July 15, 2021 order from LCI states that the 267 James St. violations include a leaking roof, a damp bathroom ceiling, rotted gutters, and loose rails in the basement. An Oct. 6, 2021 order from LCI states that the 167 Scranton St. violations include holes in the roof, molded drywall, and a damp ceiling. (The Independent was not able to obtain a copy of the 133 Plymouth St. code violation order by the publication time of this article.)
Horsford in her Whitney Ave. office.
After Tuesday’s hearings, the Independent spoke with Farnam Realty Group founder and CEO Carol Horsford about Aizenberg’s three continued criminal housing court cases.
That’s because, in addition to running her own successful real estate brokerage and property management company, Horsford has also recently taken on a host of maintenance and repair responsibilities for Ocean.
“I like a good fix-up project,” Horsford said when asked why Farnam has taken on maintenance and repairs for Ocean. “We like to help people.”
Both companies are based out of the same office building, but different office spaces, at 101 Whitney Ave. In addition to handling maintenance and repairs, Horsford’s company also serves as Ocean’s real estate broker — and is currently trying to sell 101 of Ocean’s local multi-family rental properties as part of a $52 million package deal.
Horsford said her team inherited 44 outstanding LCI housing-code-violation abatement orders at Ocean properties when she first took on Ocean as a client last December.
In the intervening three months, she said, Farnam has successfully taken care of and received LCI sign-offs on 25 of those orders, even as the city has recently added more to the list.
As for the cases that landed Aizenberg in court on Tuesday, Horsford said that her company has already addressed all of the code issues raised by LCI for 133 Plymouth St. and 176 Scranton St. She said she’s just waiting for LCI to complete re-inspections before those cases can be closed out.
And she said that her team has had greater difficulty making the necessary repairs at 267 James St. because the tenant at that property has refused to let the maintenance workers in. She also said that same tenant is thousands of dollars behind on rent. That has put her and Ocean in a bind, she said, because they need to be able to physically gain entry to the building before they can address the issues raised in LCI’s order.
Cirello is prejudiced against landlords. He should recuse himself for a more objective judge. Not saying the violations did not happen. Saying that he is too biased in favor of tenants.