How Upper East Side Slumlord Slavik Gofman Intimidates Tenants Out of Asserting Their Legal Rights as Rent Stabilized Tenants

On January 17, 1996, Landlord Slavik Gofman added to his real estate portfolio, 179 East 93rd Street NYC 10128, the historic childhood home of the Marx Brothers; a tenement, fully subject to New York's Rent Regulations. 

But make no mistake. Landlord Slavik Gofman was not about to let the fact that 179 East 93rd Street is a rent regulated building interfere with his plan to unlawfully capitalize on his new acquisition. Quite to the contrary, Landlord Slavik Gofman bought 179 East 93rd Street with no intention of complying with New York's Rent Regulations or with the NYC Building Code for that matter. See, June 16, 2021 screenshot reflecting 124 open violations against Landlord Slavik Gofman's 179 East 93rd Street property issued by the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation & Development (HPD). 

Since the get-go, Gofman's plan has been to ignore the Rent Stabilized status of the apartments he purchased. For Gofman truly does not believe the law applies to him. Now, it's entirely possible that Gofman doesn't believe the law applies to him because so often he gets away with corrupting and breaking the law without any significant consequences. 

So the fact that the apartments Gofman purchased were all subject to New York's Rent Regulations was not going to stop him from renting out any newly vacant 179 East 93rd Street apartments at market rent without any legal justification (e.g., no significant Individual Apartment Improvements [IAIs], etc.). 

In other words, like a pampered Prince, or perhaps more like a spoiled Czar, Gofman believes that as long as Gofman says the apartment is not rent regulated, Voila!, it's not rent regulated. And, after all, he owns it. So he thinks he can do with it as he pleases and New York law and tenants rights be damned!

Of course, Gofman knew he couldn't fool the legacy tenants (those who were living in the building as Rent Control or Rent Stabilized tenants when Gofman purchased 179 East 93rd Street). For, the previous owner, Berliner Realty, had actually adhered to New York's Rent Regulations, providing tenants with valid Rent Stabilized (or rent control) leases to which tenants are legally entitled. 

And while a business practice completely anathema to Gofman, Berliner had even filed accurate rent registrations with the NY State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). But, of course, all of that changed once Landlord Slavik Gofman got his slippery fingers on 179 East 93rd Street. 

Since the time he purchased the Marx Brothers' childhood home, Gofman has not only fraudulently misrepresented the apartments to new tenants, refused to provide new tenants with the Rent Stabilized leases to which they are legally entitled, but Gofman has also tainted the DHCR Rent Registrations for 179 East 93rd Street, filing multiple false and fraudulent rent registrations. 

So here's the game that Gofman plays with tenants, the DHCR and New York's Rent Regulations: When a legacy tenant vacates an apartment, Gofman fraudulently misrepresents to the new tenant that the Rent Stabilized apartment is not subject to New York's Rent Regulations.

And, like many NYC landlords, Gofman got away with this fraudulent scheme for years. That is, until one tenant legally challenged Gofman's fraudulent scheme and stood up against his willful landlord neglect and ruthless bullying. 

But, as you will see below, Gofman has and continues to try to make this tenant's life a living hell for the fact that this tenant exposed Gofman's fraud.

You see, after this tenant successfully challenged the Rent Stabilized status of their apartment - proving that the subject apartment had been rent stabilized from the time they took occupancy and still is, despite Gofman fraudulently misrepresenting the apartment as de-regulated and for which apartment Gofman willfully overcharged the tenant for years, and, as of this writing, for which apartment Gofman still refuses to provide a Rent Stabilized lease - Landlord Slavik Gofman was furious. 

Most New Yorkers know that this is not a particularly unique story. For decades, NYC landlords have been getting away with stealing Rent Stabilized (RSL) apartments from NYC's vital housing stock through fraudulent schemes like fictitious Individual Apartment Improvements (IAIs), etc. 

In fact, the theft of RSL apartments is so prevalent and so destructive to the sustainability of NYC that Brooklyn Law School Professor, Justin R. La Mort, wrote a brilliant legal treatise on the subject entitled, The Theft of Affordable Housing: How Rent-Stabilized Apartments are Disappearing from Fraudulent Individual Apartment Improvements and What Can be Done to Save Them. 

And the sort of unscrupulous NYC landlords who engage in these fraudulent schemes and illegal activities - designed to circumvent New York's Rent Regulations - are not the sort who take kindly to being challenged. After all, these sort of NYC landlords don't play by the rules to begin with because they truly don't think they have to play by the rules. 

In point of fact, sounding more like a feudal lord than a man who bought a Rent Regulated NYC Tenement, Landlord Slavik Gofman has, on numerous occasions, barked, "I OWN this building! And I can do whatever I want with it!"

So, perhaps not surprisingly, when Gofman's feudal lord aspirations (read: delusions) publicly collided with the reality of the facts about the Rent Stabilized status of 179 East 93rd Street and the applicable New York Law, Gofman had a full-blown hissy fit. 

Rather than putting on his big boy pants, coming clean, and complying with New York law, Gofman did what bullies are wont to do; he launched an aggressive campaign of harassment against the tenant who had had the audacity to challenge him and who, in the process of challenging him, had exposed Gofman's myriad lies, fraud, misrepresentations and legal transgressions.

As though he wanted to send a message to any other tenants who might get the idea to follow the lead of this tenant, and challenge the Rent Stabilized status of their apartments too, Gofman ruthlessly employed countless bullying and threatening tactics against the tenant who had legally bested him. 

If Landlord Slavik Gofman's goal was to deter other tenants from challenging the legal status of their apartments, his hard ball tactics have worked; For several tenants were terrified when they saw what Gofman had done to that tenant's apartment.

And tenants' fears are perfectly understandable. After all, the sort of NYC landlords willing to violate New York's Rent Regulations are often the sort of NYC landlords inclined to violate other laws and to push back in dramatic and threatening ways against the law and anyone attempting to hold them accountable to it.  

To these sort of unscrupulous NYC landlords, the facts and the law are huge inconveniences that they would rather pay - or muscle - their way around. And far from being self-conscious about violating the law and misrepresenting facts, these sort of unscrupulous NYC landlords wear their transgressions like badge of honor or a moldy middle finger. But to actually comply with the law or acknowledge the facts is just not a part of their "business" ethos.

So, in the face of Gofman's hard ball tactics, dirty tricks, thuggery and willingness to corrupt the process, one can't really blame a tenant for being afraid to stand up to the notorious Landlord Slavik Gofman. 

No one wants to see their home blasted with toxic ash as Gofman and his gang did to the entirety of the apartment where the tenant - who had successfully challenged Gofman's misrepresentations, about the subject apartment being subject to New York's Rent Regulations - lives.  

Of course, it may have just been a coincidence. But, if so, what a convenient coincidence it was when, on January 28, 2019, the apartment - where the tenant who had successfully challenged Landlord Slavik Gofman lives - was completely contaminated with toxic ash as documented by the above photographs and by the NYPD and FDNY, both of whom responded to the incident, and by the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation & Development (HPD) Violation #12881802 and the NYC Department of Health C.C. No T19-01-28-0543 (and other prior related DOH C.C. #s), etc. 

And this is how the notorious Upper East Side Slumlord, known as Slavik Gofman, has, for years, managed to intimidate tenants out of asserting their legal rights as Rent Stabilized tenants.