Leaky Ceiling, Rent Dispute Spark Eviction Case

A rainstorm knocked a hole in Jahmal Furman’s ceiling, which remained unrepaired for nearly four months. 

A rent dispute stemming from the Quinnipiac Avenue tenant’s concerns over delayed maintenance may now lead to his eviction.

That maintenance-and-rent dispute was at the center of a recent court hearing in Furman’s ongoing eviction case. 

The video-streamed state court proceeding took place online via YouTube.

The case hinges on a tenant’s decision not to pay rent in response to what he saw as unsafe, unsightly, and too-long-unrepaired conditions in his rented second-floor, two-bedroom apartment on Quinnipiac Avenue. 

His landlord, an affiliate of the local megalandlord Ocean Management, argued that Furman should be evicted because he stopped paying rent well before the partial ceiling collapse occurred. (Furman disputes that contention in part. See more below.) 

Ocean Management head Shmuel Aizenberg also told the Independent that Covid-induced staffing and supply chain crunches contributed to the delay in repairs to Furman’s ceiling. 

In housing court on Tuesday, the landlord’s attorney, Ian Gottlieb, made yet another argument for why the eviction should proceed: the court has already granted a default judgment in favor of the landlord after Furman failed to file an appearance in the case in a timely manner. 

Furman, meanwhile, contended that he responded to the eviction lawsuit as soon as he learned about it — and that he is happy to keep paying rent now that the hole in his ceiling has finally been fixed four months later. 

“I’m not trying to get evicted,” Furman told state Superior Court Judge Sybil Richards in open court on Tuesday. ​“I wanted to get my ceiling fixed. I don’t have any issues with the landlord.” Besides, that is, how long it took to get the hole repaired.

“Unfortunately, there’s no basis for Mr. Furman to have withheld the rent,” Gottlieb replied in court. ​“There are other venues he could have proceeded. He could have contacted LCI [the city housing code enforcement agency, the Livable City Initiative]. He could have paid to the court. Withholding rent is never an option.”

The fate of Furman’s eviction case is now in the hands of Judge Richards, who said at the end of Tuesday’s hearing that ​“the court will reserve its decision” — meaning that she will issue a decision, specifically on Furman’s motion to open the default judgment against him, in the coming days.

Tenant: "I Just Wanted Them To Fix The Ceiling"

For Furman, the story behind his ongoing eviction case dates in part back to when he first moved in to his Quinnipiac Avenue apartment in July 2020.

From the very start of his tenancy, he told the Independent in a phone interview Tuesday, the apartment suffered from ceiling leaks. 

Those were mostly in the living room and the kitchen.

He said he got fed up enough with those leaks that, in August 2021, he decided to not pay rent.

A month later, on Sept. 24, a heavy rainstorm ripped a hole in his dining room ceiling — significantly exacerbating a problem he said had existed for months.

“I was in my room. It happened at 5 a.m.” right before he was getting ready to go to work, Furman recalled about that late September storm. There was ​“a big kaboom.”

When he walked from his bedroom to his dining room, he saw a mess of wood and plaster all over the floor. 

Looking up, he saw a gaping hole in the ceiling above his dining room table and chairs. 

“I sent a picture to the landlord the moment it happened,” Furman told the Independent about the dining room ceiling’s partial collapse. 

Two weeks later, he said, a maintenance crew came to fix the building’s roof. But no one ever took care of repairing the interior ceiling of his apartment. 

Meaning that his apartment suffered from even more leaks in the ensuing four months. 

And Furman had to put up with the inconvenience, embarrassment, and potential hazard of having a large, exposed gash in the middle of his dining room ceiling. 

Finally, Furman said, his landlord sent a new maintenance crew over this past weekend. They fixed the ceiling and repaired the hole. 

“They did a good job. I’ve got no problem” with their work, he told the Independent.

“I’m not trying to put nobody on blast,” he said. He really doesn’t have any deep-seated grudge with the landlord. Sure, he’s never met the landlord, and was frustrated with the maintenance crew’s lack of timely attention. But he likes where he lives, and wants to stay there. 

He said he has the money to keep paying rent, and is happy to do so now that the long-standing ceiling hole has been fixed.

“I don’t feel that’s right,” Furman said when asked by the Independent for his thoughts on how his withholding rent for maintenance concerns may lead to his eviction. ​“The landlord’s job is to protect where you live at.” If he’s expected to do his own maintenance, he said, he may as well just try to buy his own home.

“I don’t think I’m saying anything outlandish,” he continued. ​“I just wanted them to fix the ceiling.”

Eviction Case: Nonpayment, Default Judgment

While Furman was waiting and waiting for his dining room ceiling to be fixed, meanwhile, his landlord started the process of evicting him from his Quinnipiac Avenue apartment for nonpayment of rent.

This is where Furman’s and Aizenberg’s takes on the tenant’s rent-paying status diverge.

Furman told the Independent that he stopped paying rent in August 2021 because of leaks in his apartment. He then doubled down on that decision to withhold rent after the late September storm knocked a hole in his ceiling and no one came by to repair it.

In an email comment to the Independent, Aizenberg said that Furman had actually stopped paying rent as early as March 2021, and was therefore six months behind on rent prior to any maintenance issues even being logged. Furman maintained to the Independent that that’s simply not true. He said he was up to date on rent up until August of last year.

The initial eviction complaint, written by Ocean-hired attorney David Rosenberg and filed in early November, states that Furman ​“did not pay rent for the month(s) of August and/or September, 2021.” That lawsuit goes on to state that, on Sept. 14, the landlord served Furman with a notice to quit, telling him to leave the apartment by Oct. 21. 

So, on Nov. 1 of last year, the landlord filed an eviction complaint in state court, seeking to kick Furman out for nonpayment of rent.

And on Dec. 10, since Furman still hadn’t filed an appearance in the case, state Superior Court Judge John Cirello issued a judgment of possession in favor of the landlord. That so-called ​“default for failure to appear” meant that the landlord could move ahead with evicting Furman. 

According to court records, on Dec. 17, Furman filed an appearance in the case. 

That same day, he also filed a motion to open the default judgment. ​“Said landlord hasn’t fixed or called me to ask about fixing the ceiling in my dining room,” he wrote in that motion. ​“I sent pictures and never was contacted.” Furman repeated those collapsed-ceiling concerns in an ​“answer” document he filed with the court, also on Dec. 17.

In Virtual Court: "I Didn't Have Any Problem Paying"

That so-called ​“motion to open” is what was before Judge Richards in virtual housing court on Tuesday.

Furman told the judge the same story he later told the Independent, and the same one he alluded to in his court filings.

He said he withheld rent because ​“they didn’t fix my ceiling until yesterday.”

“I didn’t have any problem paying,” he continued. He just wanted his ceiling fixed.

Gottlieb countered that Furman did not provide any valid reason for why he failed to file an appearance in time. He said Furman’s arguments don’t meet ​“the requirements that were supposed to be met pursuant to the motion to open — such as having a good cause, or really a good answer to dispute the nonpayment. … Mr. Furman does not meet the requirements of the motion to open.”

Furman replied that he acted as soon as he learned of the eviction proceeding. ​“When I received the paperwork, I came down here to the court.” That was on Dec. 17, he said, and that’s when he filed his motion to open.

“I’ve been exposed to mold, to lead,” he said about the hole that was in his ceiling between Sept. 24 and Jan. 17. ​“I had a sincere, valid reason” not to pay rent.

Gottlieb said that the court in this case has not found that ​“a hole in the ceiling that needed to be repaired is a habitability issue.” All the court has found so far is that Furman didn’t file an appearance in a timely manner, and therefore it issued a default judgment against him.

“I apologize” for filing any papers in the wrong order or by the wrong timeline, Furman told the judge. He also apologized for withholding rent if that’s not what he was supposed to do when repairs weren’t made. He repeated that he doesn’t want to be evicted and forced to leave, and is happy to keep paying rent now that the hole has been repaired.

“The court will reserve its decision,” Judge Richards said before concluding the hearing.

Landlord: Repair Delays Due To Roof Priority, Staff & Supply Shortages

Rent dispute aside, why did it take Ocean so long to fix the hole in Furman’s apartment’s ceiling?

“The truth is we weren’t able to address this tenant’s needs in as timely a manner as we would have liked in September because of following reasons,” Aizenberg responded in his email comment.

First: His company had to replace the two-family Quinnipiac Avenue home’s entire roofing after the Sept. 24 storm. That roof replacement and repair were done by November, he said. 

Only after the roof had been replaced could a work team fix the interior of the apartment, which was done the month after, he said.

(City building permit records show that the city Building Department issued a stop work order to Aizenberg’s company on Dec. 17 after a Dec. 14 inspection at this Quinnipiac Avenue property found that a work crew was changing the roof sheathing and installing a new roof without the required permits and approvals. According to those same city records, Aizenberg’s company then pulled the proper permits and completed the work on Dec. 23.)

Repairs were further delayed, Aizenberg said, because his company ​“experienced difficulties sourcing building materials and parts, as well as debilitating staffing shortages due to Covid.”

“This complaint is not representative of our long-standing history of reasonable and fair tenant maintenance response,” Aizenberg continued, ​“but extenuating circumstances played a crucial role.”