The Pinnacle Group: Owner Joel Weiner is a Wiener.

The Pinnacle Group is very similar to the (Oheb)Shalom family, except that this post doesn’t start out with a song. It’s a family-owned business, currently owned by 3rd generation Joel Weiner, who’s very obviously a wiener. The Pinnacle Group owns over 20,000 rent-stabilized units that cost around $500 a month, but they evict the tenants, do a quick remodel, and then rent it out for $1500-$1700 a pop. In the last few years, they have tried to evict ¼ of their tenants for no real reason and have had 5,000 eviction proceedings in various housing courts.

From The New York Times:

“When you are trying to evict one out of four tenants, that is what lawyers call prima facie evidence,” Congressman Rangel said. “It is something that screams out for a criminal or civil or legal remedy.”
They rarely win in court, and that’s partially because they “accidentally” charge their tenants for a lot of extra things that they obviously didn’t use in that apartment (unless it was a really, really […really, really, really…] big apartment):

When they examined Pinnacle’s invoices for the work done on [one] apartment… they found that the company had included charges for 160 light bulbs, 75 pounds of grout, 130 gallons of paint, a $198 nail gun and a $424 drain cleaning device. They also found that some items listed as installed were not there, including oak flooring and a pedestal sink.
Unless Pinnacle was giving this tenant their own building all to themselves, then they screwed up big time. They have also charged other tenants $1000 for 100 gallons of paint, 5 toilets for a 2 bathroom apartment, and other outrageous amounts of supplies, which basically means that they’re building all of their evicted tenants large castles. At least I hope. Residents have also said that they have been charged for new front doors that were installed years before they moved in.

You would hope that Pinnacle wouldn’t overcharge people and spend most of their money in housing courts so that they could fix building violations, like a building that went on fire one Father’s Day several years ago and was never fixed. But no. Instead:
Statements from tenants at properties owned by Pinnacle… detail what they call constant harassment: allegedly discriminating against Latino tenants; invasion of privacy; alleged mail theft to facilitate bogus court proceeding; and sustaining second-degree burns from a radiator explosion – the alleged result of long-standing need for repair.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with this shitty management company. Read the articles at The New York Times, The Real Deal, and Indy Press NY, and also check out BRUSH’s website. When apartment hunting, make sure that these guys are not the management, and always look at your bill for what you’re being charged for.

List of 12 of NYC's Landlords

By Justin Rocket Silvermanam NewYork Staff Writer

The 'Dirty Dozen' list provided by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development:

Mt. Eden, the Bronx: Jacob Finkelstein for not fixing leaks at 105 E. Clark Place

Washington Heights: Joel Weiner of The Pinnacle Group LLC, which is said to have begun legal proceedings against 5,000 tenants

Central Brooklyn: John Tsevelos of G-Way Management

West Side Manhattan: Jay Podolsky for harassing tenants at SRO hotels-

Lower East Side: Nathan Shuchat at 141 Ridge Street

Williamsburg: Adam Mermelstein and TreeTop Development LLC

Queens:George Subraj for his many buildings in the Jamacia area.

Bushwick: David Melendez is said to have more than 673 open building code violations-

Harlem: Joel Weiner of The Pinnacle Group LLC

South Bronx: Doug Peterson of NYC Capital Value Fund II LLC for pressuring Section 8 tenants to move out

Chinatown: Benjamin Shaoul for bringing frivolous lawsuits

South Brooklyn: Julia and Carlos Guzman for harassing tenants at 268 Dean Street

Lawsuit against Pinnacle announced

THE REAL DEAL

By Jen Benepe

Scott Stringer A lawsuit was filed in federal court today against mega-landlord Pinnacle Group and its principal, Joel Wiener, for allegedly fraudulently inflating rents, failing to make needed repairs, and groundlessly harassing tenants as "part of a coordinated business strategy to boost profits and drive middle-income tenants from their apartments," according to statements.

The lawsuit was announced in a press conference held by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Weiner and his company have come under increasing criticism since buying an estimated $1 billion in distressed buildings in Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx over the past few years. In its biggest buy, Pinnacle purchased 104 properties from landlord Baruch Singer in 2005 for more than $500 million.

The suit alleges that Pinnacle is trying to drive out many tenants and is subjecting some of them to unnecessary legal machinations. "I have never seen the mere mention of a landlord create so much fear," said Stringer. "Pinnacle is simply a code word for mass eviction." Stringer said his and Gotbaum's offices had met with Pinnacle and spent many hours trying to negotiate a way that tenants could effectively deal with the legal notices that would not require them to miss work for long stretches of time and hire lawyers. "Our attempts to sit down with Pinnacle have not borne fruit, however," said Stringer. "

A federal lawsuit will be a dose of reality and give them a taste of their own medicine."The suit alleges that Pinnacle has broken federal racketeering laws by utilizing the mail and electronic means to send fraudulent requests for rent; that the landlord has misrepresented the minimum amount of rent due; and that Pinnacle has made false statements about repairs that were made, said the lead counsel on the case, Richard Levy, whose firm is representing tenants in the action pro bono after being contacted by Gotbaum. In statements to the press, Levy characterized Pinnacle's actions as tantamount to a "scheme" to defraud tenants on a grand scale. He also said that Pinnacle has allegedly engaged in "a general practice of deceiving the tenants for the purposes of getting people out of rent control, getting people to the point where the [apartments] could be converted to condominiums."

Ken Fisher, a spokesperson and legal representative for Pinnacle, said they had not even received a copy of the filing when the public announcement of the lawsuit was made. "The lawsuit appears to have been instigated by a woman whose mother was arrested for vandalizing an elevator in an Pinnacle building and with whom we are currently in litigation," said Fisher, referring to one of the plaintiffs, Kim Powell, whose mother allegedly vandalized an elevator on Pinnacle property."We are confident that this lawsuit, which was released to the press before being served on us, will be found to be without merit," said Fisher. He also noted that his office and Pinnacle had been in negotiations with Kim Powell and her lawyers, and that the last he knew, his firm had sent a proposal over to Powell's lawyer's offices two weeks ago."We thought we had provided a reasonable basis for solving the legitimate issues, and they filed a lawsuit without telling us that those discussions had ended," he added.

http://www.therealdeal.net/breaking_news/2007/07/11/1184190588.php

'SLUM BUM' HIT WITH RICO SUIT

By TOM TOPOUSIS- NY Post

July 12, 2007 -- One of the city's largest landlords was slapped yesterday with a federal racketeering lawsuit, claiming the company is waging "an attack" on affordable housing with thousands of illegal evictions aimed at jacking up rents beyond what the law allows.

The RICO lawsuit, filed by a group of tenants, accuses the Pinnacle Group and its chief officer, Joel Wiener, of "corporate slumlording" by hiring a legion of lawyers, who turned out more than 5,000 eviction notices in just over two years.
"This is not another case of landlords' penny-pinching," said lawyer Richard Levy, of Jenner & Block, the firm representing the tenants.
"This corporation has made what can be called an attack on affordable housing."
Pinnacle owns 420 buildings, mostly in upper Manhattan and parts of The Bronx, with 21,000 apartments.
Levy said Pinnacle, and its financing partner, the Praedium Group, have targeted "undervalued" buildings with high concentrations of rent-stabilized apartments. The suit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act accuses Pinnacle of using illegal tactics to evict tenants in order to jack up rents.

The lawsuit has the backing of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, both of whom joined a press conference by telephone yesterday to announce the action filed in federal court.
Gotbaum said Pinnacle is waging "a coordinated plan to harass tenants and then flip the apartments at market rate."
Pinnacle spokesman Kenneth Fisher called the claims "nonsense." He said the lawsuit was "instigated by a woman whose mother was arrested for vandalizing an elevator in a Pinnacle building and with whom we are currently in litigation."

Fisher said Pinnacle has acted legally and has not filed more eviction notices than is common among city landlords.
"Pinnacle is proud of its record of providing safe and affordable housing for thousands of New York families, and we are confident that this lawsuit . . . will be found to be without merit," Fisher said.
Levy said that in addition to the eviction strategy, Pinnacle has vastly inflated costs of repairs and improvements at its buildings in order to justify huge rent increases.

Andreas Mares-Muro, a tenant in a Pinnacle-owned building on Riverside Drive and 141st Street, said the rent on his apartment was raised prior to his moving in from $648 to $1,275, which violated rent-stabilization laws.
Pinnacle bought the building in 2005 but has refused to correct the rent overcharges, said Mares-Muro, one of the tenants bringing suit.
tom.topousis@nypost.com

In Suit Against Landlord, Tenants Make Unusual Accusation: Racketeering

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMSPublished: July 12, 2007

3Joel Weiner , one of the city's most notorious slumlords, was accused in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit yesterday of fraud and racketeering.

A group of tenants filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against one of the city’s fastest-growing residential landlords yesterday, accusing it of harassment, fraud, rent overcharges and illegal evictions.The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends that the landlord, the Pinnacle Group, and its owner, Joel Weiner, systematically evicted tenants to raise rents in apartments throughout the city, but primarily in units concentrated in Harlem, Washington Heights and the Bronx.Because Pinnacle owns several thousand apartment units in those areas — most of them bought during the past four years — tenants and their lawyers said the company’s actions constituted an attack on rent-regulated housing in some of Manhattan’s few remaining working-class neighborhoods.Pinnacle has acknowledged sending out some 5,000 letters, called dispossess notices, to tenants in about a quarter of its 21,000 units during a 29-month period from 2004 through 2006, citing nonpayment of rent, invalid line of succession for occupancy and other violations; however, it said only a few hundred people had actually been evicted.

Issuing a dispossess notice is a legal requirement before an eviction can take place. The company said that its rate of eviction was below the industry average.Pinnacle representatives said yesterday that data on evictions since 2006 were not available.In a statement yesterday responding to the lawsuit, Kenneth K. Fisher, a lawyer and former city councilman who is representing Pinnacle, said that the company had not violated any laws.“Pinnacle is proud of its record of providing safe and affordable housing for thousands of New York families, and we are confident that this lawsuit, which was released to the press before being served on us, will be found to be without merit,” the statement read.

The lawsuit — filed by several individual Pinnacle tenants along with a tenants’ group, Buyers and Renters United to Save Harlem, made up largely of Pinnacle tenants — is unusual in that it accuses Pinnacle of engaging in racketeering, including using the federal postal system and interstate wires as “part of an ongoing scheme to increase rents unlawfully, to receive illegal rents and ultimately, to free their properties from New York’s rent control and rent stabilization requirements.”Racketeering allegations are more commonly used by the federal government to prosecute organized crime figures and drug traffickers.The suit also contends that Pinnacle has intimidated tenants through threatened evictions and claimed to make building repairs and improvements that had never been made. The company has acknowledged in the past that it improperly passed on costs of repairs and apartment upgrades to new tenants, but said they were isolated mistakes.Last year, both the state attorney general’s office and the Manhattan district attorney’s office began investigations into the company after receiving numerous complaints from tenants and elected officials.

In December, Pinnacle reached a settlement with the state in which it admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to hire an auditor to analyze its rents. The district attorney’s investigation is continuing, officials said.Richard F. Levy, a senior partner at Jenner & Block, who is representing the tenants pro bono, said the firm filed the lawsuit against Pinnacle after conducting its own yearlong investigation.Andres Mares-Muro, a Pinnacle tenant who is a plaintiff in the suit, said he had recently learned that the rent on his Harlem apartment, $1,275, was almost double that of the previous tenant, $648. “In this supposedly rent-stabilized unit, we are paying market rate,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/nyregion/12evict.html