NYC’s “Worst Landlord” Returns to Rikers

Daniel Ohebshalom—the number one “Worst Landlord” on the New York City Public Advocate’s watchlist for two consecutive years—is back in jail for disobeying court orders to correct violations in two of his Washington Heights rental properties, 705 and 709 W. 170th St.

This is the second time Ohebshalom has been ordered to jail as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit that began in September 2021, when the Department of Housing Preservation and Development first brought litigation against the landlord for the hazardous conditions in his rental properties.

Tenants of the Washington Heights buildings at the center of the case have periodically lived without heat, hot water, and electricity, and contended with leaks, mold, chipped lead paint and roach and rodent infestations, according to Department of Buildings records and court affidavits.

Despite multiple court orders to address the violations, Ohebshalom’s tenants reported that the landlord had not made meaningful repairs, and that they continued to live in dangerous conditions. The landlord was held in contempt of court twice in 2023 for his continued failure to obey court orders to fix the violations.

Back in March, housing court judge Jack Stoller made the rare move of issuing an arrest warrant for Ohebshalom, who turned himself in two weeks later. He served a 60-day jail sentence on Rikers Island, during which he was reportedly punched in the face.

While Ohebshalom served his first sentence, his tenants continued to report substandard conditions. In an affidavit filed in June, Psiquis Gonzalez, a tenant in one of the buildings named in the case, said that she and her neighbors “frequently” lived without heat and hot water throughout March and April. “I am informed that the landlord spent his time at Rikers in the equivalent of a studio apartment that is probably nicer than some of the vacant apartments in my building, a building he owns,” she continued. “I do not know if there is any punishment that will actually force respondents to comply with the law, but nothing has worked so far.”

In April, an HPD lawyer on the case asked for the judge to either issue another arrest warrant, or to confine Ohebshalom to one of his own neglected rental properties. The lawyer referenced two prior cases in which unscrupulous New York City landlords were sentenced to house arrest in their own neglected properties so that they could “get a taste of [their] own medicine,” as one judge put it.

Judge Stoller ordered the landlord’s re-arrest in August, citing his continued failure to complete court-ordered repairs. Ohebshalom’s lawyers asked the judge to reconsider his order, arguing that “significant progress has been made to correct all conditions in the Buildings and clear the various violations issued by HPD.”

But the judge denied the lawyers’ motion, writing that they had failed to provide sufficient evidence that the violations had been adequately addressed, and that “at least 125 hazardous and immediately hazardous violations remained outstanding back to November of 2022.”

Data from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development show that there are 453 open violations between the two Washington Heights buildings, down from over 700 at the time of his first arrest in March.

On September 25, half a year after his first jailing, Ohebshalom was arrested and returned to Rikers Island. He is scheduled to be released on November 23, according to the New York City Department of Correction’s inmate database.