Heat. Heat. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone to please shut off all cell phones. My name is Salvatore Clapsy and I am sitting in for the chairperson of the BAM Rent Control Board. Welcome to the
April 21st, 2026 public hearing of the BAM Rent Control Board. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to our >> flaggates. At this time, I'd like to ask Jackie for to break the roll call. Board member Clapsy, >> present.
>> Board member Chadam Nichols, >> present. >> Board member Prito, >> present. >> Board member Farber, >> present. >> Board member Cisiano, absent. You You may proceed. >> The rent board complies with the sunshine law of the state of New Jersey.
Notice of the meeting has been filed with the city clerk and notice has been filed the bulletin board in municipal building. Tonight the court disographer is not present. However, the meeting is being recorded. The addresses to be read
for mass vote are those application that the board members have reviewed individually without discussion and have found the subject of the requested action and in compliance with the rent control ordinances requirements.
If for some reason anyone has a question or problem with one of these applications, when the address is read, simply raise your hand. Any address will be stricken from the mass vote and then heard separately. Please listen carefully for your address. No applications will be
heard once the board members have voted and the public hearing is closed. Okay. Resolution for major capital improvements, 125 West 19th Street. Hi. How are you? How are you? Good.
>> What's your name? >> Uh, Marco Scarabajio. >> Correct. >> Let me just put it on the record here. This is for the apartment building located. >> Correct. >> And I assume you're here to talk about resolution603.
>> Yes. >> Okay. >> Well, I I have some updated photos to show for the record and part of exhibit if I can just give submit them. >> Okay. So, let me just tell you this. >> Sure. >> I think I can cut the >> Okay.
>> So, are you giving that to the office? >> I would. Yes. >> So, here's the issue. Um I know that we we wrote and and if you read the resolution, you'll see part of our issue was >> under the ordinance, >> right?
>> You can't get routine repairs. It has routine repairs are part of your obligation, right? If you make capital improvements and improve the value of the building, that's okay. And and we also understand that sometimes a couple of windows need to be repaired and
decides it's just better to replace them all, >> right? So the problem with your application was and I'm not the problem with the application from our perspective was it was hard to tell how much of that might have been repair and
I know how it go >> right >> you know improve the whole thing >> right >> we couldn't tell from your application what part of that if any was just repairs and what part if any
additional capital improvement work that you decide you're going to do here. You got the guy here. >> Sure. >> So, we denied your application. However, >> under our statute, under our ordinance, you're allowed to make an application
for capital improvement within one year of completion of the >> right. >> Um, what you can do is we have to put on a new application because the tenants are allowed to have a hearing and see all your proof, >> right?
>> So, what you should do, I know you have photographs. That's not going to be enough. >> Okay. >> So, you're because I look at photographs, we can't tell. We're the board members. They can't tell, oh, that's a repair, that's replacement. Sometimes a repair looks like a good job.
>> So, go to your guy who did your work. >> Talk to him and have him or do something Okay. >> This was the bill, >> right? >> This is the part that is
>> or this is the part that's a capital improvement that you can look at our statute. >> Yeah. If I may say that some of the repair work is behind the pging where you're fixing mortar joints. So what happens is you get some void spaces, you
get loose joints, and if you don't repair that, you get insects coming in, the block becomes unstable, and if it's just left over a long period of time, it just degrades itself even worse. So it's almost two-part. Some of it is cosmetic. I'll show you, as you can see in the pictures, but really the proof is in the
pudding, which is in behind the layers. And so that's why now, if you want me to quantify or help quantify the difference between the two, >> here's the problem. The problem is that it's really maint.
>> So that's the issue, >> right? >> I'm trying to help. >> I know. I know. I get it. I I get it. >> I'm not trying I don't want to lie. >> No, no, no, no. I want to be fair about this. >> I understand. Like I said from like my own home that it doesn't make sense that
this is probably what happened there. But I don't know if it were the case to say that it could very well be that you had a couple of places that needed to get pointed other places that are still okays aren't getting in but you got the whole thing opened up and the point is well I'm not going to wait every time a
bug gets in. So, I had you guys come now and while it's open, we're gonna we're gonna prepare and then we're going to approve everything else up >> because I as a landlord thought it was the right thing to do was to do the entire section and not just peace meal
it >> and that's the whole reason why we allow capital >> right >> and so we want we have people coming in here all the time saying the door wasn't a door, right? No, no, they gave you a better
>> Well, in my case, I have a better foundation. I think for myself, I could sleep at night knowing that I have a better foundation. It's not going to get bugs. They're not >> the only perspective, right? >> We can't tell when we get a bill for $13,000
that, you know, maybe 500 of that was to repair that and the rest of it was and that moving forward the rest of it. >> So, do you want me to parse have that parsed out to some degree? Okay. >> Just something that we can give us. We
get it. Everybody here, I'm sure, gets the concept, right? >> But we need to charge a dollar amount to your tenant and and we can't in fairness like you said, you know, some of it is to repair and you just walk away and say
repairs every year. Understood. So, talk to your Okay. >> Maybe you can figure it out. >> All right. So, do I have to pay an extra fee because of this or how does that because there was a fee associated with this and >> um >> so I would respectfully request that
maybe the fee get waved and I could just resubmit >> because you're working with us and you're not you're not being flippant like we generally when landlords ignore their obligations and they don't and they just don't do things we tend to say like you can't keep coming back on us
>> but for your purposes because you did this and you're trying to get it right and work with us. >> Okay. >> No, I mean it will be okay. >> Okay. >> That's fair. >> We really just need some proof that we need to let
you >> right. >> I look at it from a different lens because like you know this is to me it's I want to see an improvement and and and so like if I can get some capture money back you know it's an investment. Right. >> Right. You don't let the
Correct. Correct. >> Yeah, that's fair. >> All right. Okay. Say that. He'll just resubmit another application. Correct. >> Yeah. Resubmit another application. Okay. >> Um >> I can hold on to these pictures. >> Or I mean, you don't even need to do the whole application again if you just resubmit the backup. >> Okay.
>> The application's okay. It's the backup. Okay. >> It's it's We don't have and that's why I'm telling you you don't have to pay again because we're not denying your application and we're not pulling it just got
>> so give me your your back your office but >> I totally understand >> all right so we'll keep it at 20 2025 application 216 >> yeah we're going to table that Yeah, we're going to leave that open. >> Okay. >> I could get that to you maybe in the
next week or so. Like two. Okay. Two. Gotcha. Okay. >> Yeah, that's it. All right. Thank you. Thanks. All right. >> So, a motion to uh table this. >> No, we don't have to. We're just talking. >> You got it. >> We're just
moving on. Let's do 486 Kennedy resolution 20261. >> Yes, there are three major capital improvements. >> Hi. >> My name is Ahmed Abdel Hamid. I am the representative for the landlord.
Okay. Got you're talking now about I guess >> uh well it's three but I'll focus first on the fire escape then the door and then the restroom. >> What do you want to talk about? >> Of course. Thank you. I appreciate it and thank you all for your time. As to
the fire escape. The main thing is it was more than a repair. This was a ne this was a capital improvement that was made because the tenant is overoccupying the property. There are supposed to be a maximum of four to five people in a two-bedroom apartment. We have reason to
believe that there are at least six to eight. So, we took it upon ourselves to improve the fire escape to be able to handle that extra weight. And there were certain aspects of the fire escape that were replaced, chipped off, and uh done
so it could improve the access for that weight and improve the safety. So, that's our argument when it comes to the fire escape. As to the door, the doors stop was removed several times and the only reasonable factor is the tenant had removed the doors stop. It's in their
apartment and it's allowing the door to swing aggressively and eventually damage the door. So, we replaced the door and the door frame because of that aggressive swinging. And even until now, that new door stop was removed. Now instead of making a simple fix of just having the doors stop, the entire frame
was seen to be improved because there was fracturing of that door frame because of the removal of the doors stop. Now, as to the bathroom, the replacement of the shower head, that was uh at a capital improvement as we saw
fit to see some of the pipes weren't in the best conditions. And it would have been safer going forward to have replaced that piping and inside of the walls along with the shower head and not just done a simple, you know, nitty-gritty stop the leak. So in order
to do that, tiles were needed to be removed to examine behind it to ensure that the piping was correctly done and done in a way to really replace the shower head into an improved condition.
>> So let me just give you um a little bit of a lowdown. First off, you made this application for the last meeting and we had a hearing. you got notice, tenant got notice, and you should have appeared at that hearing and you should have
talked to us and and testified at that hearing with everything you're saying now. It wouldn't have mattered and I'll tell you why it would Well, it may or may not have, but I'll tell you why it wouldn't have mattered and why you haven't been prejudiced by that. But, um, there's a reason for that because the tenant there's, you know, due process and you have to have a notice
and everything else. So, we really I'm hearing you now and I'm hearing your comments. We can't change the board's vote or the board's assessment on based on what you're saying right now because it's not
under oath. It's not at a hearing and your tenant doesn't have a right to come now. Has no notice to come and say, "No, no, he's wrong. It's not this or that." I'll tell you why it wouldn't matter anyway, though. So, you don't feel like you got stuck. Um, let me talk about
We'll talk about your fire escape. the board already considered it and if you read the resolution it explains it carefully. I know what you're saying and I hear what you're saying and in theory repairs inherently improve property
otherwise we wouldn't make repairs. So obviously a repair by definition you're you're fixing something and you're replacing something. It does improve it. The question is whether it's a major capital improvement, meaning it's so
large and significant that it materially increases the entire value of your building in this case or a unit if it's an individual unit, which is the case of the the door and the f the the faucet on
the in terms of the fire escape. There's two things that are happening. The fire department examination of fire escape indicates that um there needed to be a load test for the badly deteriorated fire escape.
And your bill for it said that it was repairs and it was due to the condition. And when I tell you we try very hard for the reason that I explained to the prior witness that we try very very hard to
give landlords capital improvements. A we're keeping the the the rent stable for tenants and we don't want slum lords. We want people to live in nice cared for apartments. Um people who are rent control tenants leave, they vacate,
they pass away. you should be able to rent that out and keep the building properly in proper condition to get market rent. So there's a lot of reasons why we do try to work with you and we look very carefully at the rent at the applications just like I was telling the
gentleman before you to determine are these repairs are they even arguably improvements and unfortunately with your fire escape it's so clear fire escapes are expensive and it's so clearly from both the fire department report and from
the bill you gave us repairs it they're necessary you couldn't not do them. They had to be done. And whether there's too many tenants in there and you're like, "Oh, I have to." That's I I don't mean this flippantly, but that's not the board's issue. That's if your tenants in
breach of their lease, you have plenty of remedies for that. Go to court, sue your tenant, call the housing people, tell them it's a fire hazard in the house. You could, right? Well, I mean, but that's on you. We can't get involved in that. So, if you feel like they're requiring you to do more work, you have
a remedy for that. You're the landlord. Go get a lawyer. Go get at an attorney. Go fight them. Do what you need to do. Evict them. Do whatever you need to do. Unfortunately, we can't get involved in that. So, your repairs, >> yeah, >> it's going to shake out that way. It's >> Can I just add one thing? I think the
bill may not be entirely accurate to how it describes the decisions we made when we discussed it with them. They had made actually additional welding to improve the safety and improve the weight load capacity. So, is it possible to go back to the contractor and say, "Hey, when we
made that decision, what was that price difference?" And see if that's something we could apply because we made the decision to actually add additional welding to support that capacity because there were several options when we were discussing the scope of work and we chose the higher level option of the
scope of work to be able for the loadbearing. And I understand missing the last meeting. Uh I will say you know I think it was misinformation mis from my father from you know maybe misunderstanding from the rent leveling board whether his attendance you know I know things happen but you know I would
like to hopefully have a chance to reapply the application with a more in-depth scope of work to show the difference about what was necessary just to get the certificate and what was done above that. You're not going to win that because you know why? You're going to
you're going to you're going to have I mean you could try you're going to have to pay for another application fee because you're not like the other gentlemen. You really want to try to rehab the whole thing. Here's the problem. The problem is that you're I don't know that you're going to
particularly now because you gave us a bill that says repairs and it's kind of obvious. It's going to be very hard to convince the board that you know you went for extra one. you didn't have to go for extra and when the fire department said you got to do this. That's the problem. That's the problem.
And you know, I don't know what to tell you. >> To be fair, there were three different options. Whether it be form 4,000 or 3,000, I think it was. But then then the answer for that is to get it right the first time. It's to
come to us and ask and say, "Hey, Jackie feels a thousand phone calls a week from people. Hey, what do I do? What do I do? How do I do this?" Like, you reach out beforehand and get it right. I hate to do that to you. I really do. But
I mean, if you want to try, you want to let him try. If you want to try and you think you're going to come back with something, she's going to run it by the fire department and they're going to say whether it's real or not and whether they agree with you. The only problem I have with this is that when initially um when your father came to me and I read the whole application and then he came
back into my office, I did express to him and we did have a conversation. I said this is repair and technically on to me I can deny this. And then I said but I'll leave it up to the board because this is repair and he did say yes we had to repair. It was actually only discovering after getting the the
fire department report and the tenant that came forward and said this wasn't like we're just trying to go go do this with the goodness of our heart. We're actually we're told to fix this because it needed to be fixed. So even though I I could have denied this right from the
get-go because it was repair all the way across, your father did say this was a repair and I expressed to him and he actually said, "I understand if you deny." And I said, "But I'll give you the chance to maybe the board would think different." And I gave it to the board. And the board I think made the proper decision to say this is technically repaired because as a tenant
you would have to see a capital improvement is a brand new escape like brand new not fixing and choosing like brand new brand new that's considered to what I think as a rent control officer a definition of major capital improvement >> brand new when you don't have to do it see that's the problem here is you got
cited and they said or they inspected you and said you have to fix this once they say you have to fix is you're going to be really hardressed to show why the fact that you put a better quality like my aluminum siding from 30 years ago
just broke on my house and it was bent and it's old aluminum sign. They don't make it anymore and they're the insurance company's resigning my whole house because they can't because it can't be used. Is it an improvement? Yes. Is it better than it was then? Sure. Only because times have changed,
things have changed. That's the way we do it. We don't sell cars without airbags anymore because we just don't. So inherently they're better. They're improved. So that's the problem here. Like you just heard the gentleman who was up before you where he was talking about repointing his foundation. He
didn't have to do that. He could have chose not to do it at all because he wasn't cited. He wasn't in violation of anything. Nobody said you got to do it. And then he's like well okay well if I'm here now. The problem is he chose, you know what, let me make these repairs. And in fact, you know what? I'm not
going to repair. I'm gonna actually redo the whole thing because I need to make some repairs. I'm going to redo the whole thing. That would be like me opting to take down my siding and put up new siding. That would be a capital improvement because no one's telling me to do it and I decide I'm going to do it. That's the difference here.
>> Understood. On the fire escape portion. So, uh, as to the door. >> Okay. So, let's talk the door. You're okay. So, the door is a good example. We looked at the door and if you read the resolution, I know that the resolution said no, whatever. Um, because we didn't
have approval yet, but subsequent to that hearing, the the department, the fire department indicated that the door is now up to code. So, the door is exactly one of the indications that we did. The door wasn't working. It wasn't working properly. That's one. Did you
just repair it? You could have probably repaired it, but you got a new door and you upgraded the door because you That's a different That is a capital improvement. >> Understood. >> It's hard to explain why, but I think in your head you can kind of >> No, I I understand. It improves the value,
>> right? It that does increase the value and and you didn't have to. You could have just repaired it, whatever you chose, get a brand new one. And we just had to confirm that the work was done and that it was actually what you put in was really an improvement because obviously has to meet the code. So, it
did. We got approval. So, we're going to allow the door. >> Understood. >> Um, so you're going to get the So, there's going to be a resolution today. Your resolution has been updated to indicate, and I'll tell the board this, we we revised the resolution to indicate that um the board office got notification
from the fire department, which we had talked about that we were going to table it until we got certification that it was approved, and it was approved. So, uh, so the resolution you have now adds that the board office subsequently found out that the door was passed inspection
and was acceptable. So that resolution has been updated to include that to allow for the project for the door. The bathroom, that's the same situation as the fire escaped. The bathroom was a leak. It was
a leak. The tenant came, talked that it was a leak. And here's the other problem. This is why you should have showed up. Tenant came, talked about it, said it was a leak, said it was a leak. the fire department, you know, the we got the report. They said it's a leak and need to be repaired. All the evidence was a repair. Should have been here. Should have been here. You had
noticed. You should have known. You should have come. If you didn't know, and if you couldn't make it, we've done this before. We put it off for a meeting or two until everybody can appear. >> Um, even if you had appeared and said this, what you're saying now though, I will tell you it would have been a repair because it it it was leaking. It
was leaking. You have to take it down. You have to get a new faucet. And That's a repair. That's squarely a repair. >> If we could have proved, just speaking in hypotheticals here, if we could because you got other places, right? >> Sorry. If we could have proved that it would could have been repaired by, let's
say, tightening it or doing something by without having to remove the tiles and doing that in-depth repair. Would that be considered a capital improvement had we been able to prove that it could have been repaired without removing tile? >> Sure. If if you decide I mean, here's the thing. It it's hard because you're
going to have to conf. But but we have situations where people come in and they say, "You know what? There was there's a leak and I had to get the plumber to come in and replace the faucet and a nut." And then we looked at the whole bathroom. We're like, "This bathroom's old. You know, let's bite the bullet." And we've had people who decided to
renovate a bathroom. We had another tenant a while ago who said she wanted something new and she offered to pay for part of the the the what were the kitchen cabinets or whatever. And the landlord said, "Fine, we'll redo your whole kitchen. You pay for part of your cabinets. The rest will be a capital improvement over time." So, if you had
said to us, "Ah, I got to go in that apartment anyway. I took a look. I realize it's old. I'm going to redo the whole bathroom." Then, sure. >> Then, sure. Yeah. >> Understood. >> That's That's the kind of conversation I was trying to have with your father. It wasn't It wasn't the fact of just the faucet. You when you when you think
about a capital improvement adding value to something, you're repairing everything. And when the tenant came forward, she definitely submitted also pictures demonstrating that only a section was repaired. It's not the whole thing. So saying for instance, okay, there was a leak and then you repaired
that leak and then you took all the tile off that wall, >> the whole all three sides and then the tub and then you recal it. That would be considered a major cub. Not the six that demonstrates in that
photo that it was just the six tiles that were repaired. >> Yeah, >> understood. >> And in the future, call the rent control. Looks like it's this much money >> and I can spend $500 and it's going to be $1,500.
What do I do? And we'll give you guidance. We're happy to do that. >> Understood. >> All right. >> Well, I appreciate your time and I will be sure to be more in contact. you know, as you know, my father's uh you know, I'm handing off and trying to help him out. >> And we did we did have >> I feel like we shot you
>> and and there there's was a lot of back and forth with your father and I when he initially came in, we had to get I gave him back the application to submit more proving evidence. So I don't want to discredit that he did not do effort to try to provide the best >> respect you were fishing.
>> You give me misguidance. But I really appreciate your honesty and straightforward and thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good day. >> Thank you so much. >> Have a good day. It was nice to meet you all. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, so just to recap for you all
the resolutions. So, so it's what you all ruled on last month and the only resolution decided last time. The only difference is that one that we
had left open after that meeting. It's resolution and it says whereas some After the meeting, the bureau of fire city now has passed inspection and was found
and as such pass inction. It's now provided that we held a hearing today and we were advised that secretary advised you that the bureau and there's no reason
based. So these are these should all give us a motion to approve resolutions 20261 and 2026 2. >> I'll make a motion to um approve 20 2602
and 20261. >> Uh board member Clapsy >> approved. >> Board member Chadam Nichols >> approved. Board member PTO >> approved. Board member Richard Farber >> approved.
>> So absent. >> Okay. >> All right. >> We're going to leave it until >> So meeting adjourned 7:36. Are we all for it? >> We got a motion to >> motion to adjurnn. 736. Sorry. Yes.
Board member Clapsy. >> Board member Chhattan Nichols. Approve. Board member Brito. Board member Farber >> approved. >> Okay. 7:36.