In Might 2025, Lydia Rhea, a 26-year-old freelance musician and Juilliard graduate, thought she and her two roommates had discovered their dream condo.
After years of residing in cramped pupil quarters, the group discovered a newly constructed duplex penthouse at 463 West one hundred and twenty fifth Road in Harlem.
For 3 working musicians who wanted area to rehearse, the unit appeared supreme. It boasted a spacious multi-level structure, giant home windows, two bogs, and in-unit laundry. Rhea even scored a second-floor bed room that includes an ensuite toilet and a personal terrace.
They signed a 13-month lease providing a one-month free concession, paying a internet lease of $5,485 monthly. Because the very first tenants to occupy the newly constructed unit, Rhea anticipated a pristine, fashionable, hassle-free residing expertise.
Nonetheless, what was marketed as a contemporary luxurious area rapidly escalated right into a year-long ordeal marked by obvious building defects, poisonous mildew infestation, delayed mail supply, and unresponsive constructing administration, Rhea tells Realtor.com®.
“I really feel just a little bit silly wanting again on it,” Rhea says. “It appeared clear, and it had actually good entry to trains…it appeared to be prefer it was going to be a very good area.”
Public information present the constructing is owned by an LLC affiliated with ReGlobe founder Tomer Chen, an actual property developer who signed mortgage paperwork on behalf of the entity. The constructing was managed by Malek Administration, in response to emails from the corporate shared by Rhea.
An individual who answered the cellphone at Malek Administration claimed that the corporate now not handles the constructing. Chen didn’t reply to a number of cellphone messages.
Mildew is a persistent situation for some New York renters. In Fiscal 12 months 2025, town’s Division of Housing Preservation and Growth (HPD) acquired 38,278 mildew complaints, in response to HPD’s indoor allergen report. That is a drop of about 8.5% from the prior yr’s complete of 41,835 mildew complaints.
In 2024, Harlem was the moldiest New York Metropolis neighborhood, with 397 complaints, in response to a report achieved by RentHop.
The pink flags start
Rhea says the pink flags began nearly instantly upon transferring in, and the issues rapidly worsened. At first, the problems appeared minor: a nasty paint job, leaky taps, damaged doorknobs, and a brand-new, in-unit dishwasher that didn’t run from day one.
Fixing the dishwasher alone took 4 grueling months of bouncing the job forwards and backwards between an electrician and a plumber.
“It stored going forwards and backwards of the electrician saying it wanted to be the plumber, the plumber saying it wanted to be the electrician,” Rhea defined. “After which all coming again to the tremendous who’s like, ‘I don’t do this type of work, and I don’t wish to get electrocuted.’”
In August, Malek Administration finally changed the damaged dishwasher with a working one from an unoccupied condo. However that ordeal was nothing in comparison with the lacking mail debacle.
Prepared for one thing new?
Who’s received mail?
After just a few weeks of their new house, Rhea and her roommates realized that they hadn’t acquired a single piece of mail. As freelance musicians, the roommates have been ready on near $10,000 in paper checks from gigs.
Rhea started knocking on her neighbor’s doorways, solely to find that nobody else was getting mail both.
Involved, Rhea marched right down to the native publish workplace, the place a clerk confirmed that they have been holding the constructing’s mail. Nonetheless, workers refused to launch it over-the-counter, insisting a mail service was legally required to ship it on-site.
After returning to the publish workplace nearly day by day, the roommates lastly discovered a service, who revealed that mail supply had been fully halted as a result of administration put in the constructing’s mailboxes too excessive, violating federal postal rules.
“The entire constructing wasn’t getting mail, however our administration had not advised us, ‘Hey, if you wish to get your mail, it is advisable go to the publish workplace between 9 and 10 a.m. Ask for this particular individual. We’re engaged on fixing it,” Rhea mentioned.
The scenario descended additional into absurdity when Rhea went again to gather her family’s mail—and the postal employee by chance handed her your complete constructing’s mail.
“So we’ve gone from them being like, no, we will not have the unsuitable postal employee hand you your mail on your unit, to being like, certain, let me simply hand a random civilian everyone’s mail,” Rhea mentioned.
Even after administration lowered the mailboxes to adjust to federal code, they failed to put in correct grasp locks, leaving each tenant’s mail accessible to anybody with a mail key.
“We had it on safety footage, and our administration did nothing. The publish workplace did nothing. I believe it is nonetheless like that to today, to my data,” Rhea mentioned.
Rhea quickly found that she wasn’t the one individual having a tough time in her as soon as supreme condo.
“After we moved in, we have been optimistic as a result of we have been bought this imaginative and prescient of it is a model new construct,” a tenant who lived within the constructing mentioned. “At first, although, a few of the indicators began pointing in direction of this isn’t the perfect.”
After affected by mailbox, safety, and different amenity points, it turned clear that Rhea wasn’t the odd one out; this was a building-wide downside.
A persistent leak
In February 2026, following a sequence of extreme blizzards, a persistent leak developed within the ceiling vent in Rhea’s toilet. Initially, it leaked solely throughout heavy storms. However quickly afterwards, it began to drip each time she turned on the vent.
Administration supplied solely non permanent fixes, forcing Rhea to maintain a towel completely laid out on her toilet flooring.
However on April 8, the scenario escalated from merely annoying to poisonous. Whereas pulling a laundry basket out of her closet, Rhea discovered her wall was fully lined in mildew.
She reported the hazard instantly, however with a pre-planned two-week journey to London scheduled, she had no alternative however to depart. The mildew was so pervasive that she needed to wash her packed clothes 4 occasions simply to take away the stench.
From London, Rhea known as administration day by day. But, administration refused to handle the mildew till the ceiling leak was mounted—a restore that lastly occurred on April 27. However by then, mildew had unfold into different rooms, forcing Rhea’s roommates to throw out ruined furnishings.
Different tenants skilled related structural decay. One tenant reported leaks of their unit–regardless of not being positioned on the highest flooring. Ultimately, the problem escalated into a security hazard.
“We ended up discovering some mildew, which ended up spreading,” the tenant mentioned. “At first, they’d a mildew firm are available, minimize it out of the wall, and say, okay, effectively we cleared it…simply because this mildew on the floor right here [is gone] does not imply that there is not the circumstances that led to its formation within the first place.”
A capturing in entrance of the constructing
As Rhea and different neighbors’ residences continued to rot away inside, the world outdoors turned more and more unsafe.
When Malek Administration leased the constructing’s ground-floor retail area to a smoke store, residents submitted repeated complaints about heavy loitering and harassment outdoors the entrance door.
“My spouse was getting verbally harassed, particularly late at night time, and we have been advised ‘be affected person, be affected person,’ and it wasn’t absolutely addressed,” a tenant who lived within the constructing mentioned. “In the meantime, the mildew points have been nonetheless not addressed.”
The scenario escalated violently on April 24 at 6:30 p.m., when a drug-related capturing erupted instantly outdoors the smoke store. The ensuing police shootout with a number of gunmen left neighboring storefront home windows lined in bullet holes and police stationed outdoors the entry 24/7.
Residents say the constructing now felt like an unsafe, poisonous jail.
”The irritating half concerning the capturing…was extra to do with the truth that they weren’t addressing that it occurred and never addressing or acknowledging that tenants would really like them to be taking measures to be made protected transferring ahead,” Rhea mentioned.
With their lease ending in Might, the roommates tried to barter. They requested to resume at their authentic fee with the one-month concession. Administration instantly denied their request and could be including a large pay enhance of $715 a month to their lease.
“We have been in a bind as a result of we have been like, if they don’t seem to be fixing this downside, we do not actually really feel like we are able to resign, however transferring in New York Metropolis is absolutely costly,” Rhea defined.
Mildew situation persists
Three weeks after initially reporting the mildew, Rhea says she nonetheless had no solutions. Although NYC housing pointers dictate that documented mildew should be corrected inside a sure timeline relying on the sq. footage, she says the problem went unaddressed.
On Might 4, Lydia lastly filed a proper criticism with HPD. On Might 7, she and her roommates notified administration that they might be withholding their Might lease.
The following morning at 7:30 a.m., Rhea acquired a frantic name from her tremendous pleading with them to not depart and promising the mildew could be resolved.
When contractors lastly arrived on Might 11, they minimize into the closet drywall and made a surprising discovery: the wall, instantly connected to her bathe wall, contained zero waterproofing.
Water from the bathe had been seeping instantly by way of moist tiles into the naked drywall for a yr, a direct violation of Constructing Code 2509.2, which mandates moisture-resistant backing for moist tiling.
Contractors additionally found a whole lack of waterproofing beneath the toilet tiles, explaining why mildew continually grew underneath the toilet flooring tiles and why Rhea needed to scrub her bathe each three days.
“I used to be actually not shocked,” Rhea mentioned. “Clearly one thing was occurring if the truth that this unit is a yr outdated and there is this many issues occurring already. I believe it simply confirmed in my thoughts what we have been beginning to uncover that it was simply actually cheaply constructed.”
The contractors revealed that the one actual repair was to fully intestine and rip out each bogs. They patched the closet, however inside three days, the sickening scent of mildew returned.
On Might 18, the roommates submitted formal discover that they might vacate the unit on Might 31.
The safety deposit battle
Transferring out introduced one remaining conflict. On June 1, the day after vacating, Rhea acquired textual content messages from her tremendous alleging the tenants had broken the condo. As proof, he despatched photographs of the unaddressed mildew and dangerous paint job.
“I used to be actually exasperated once I received [the messages],” Rhea mentioned. “We’re telling him that these points haven’t been resolved, after which he is doing a walkthrough and he is sending me photographs of mildew.”
The following day, a cellphone name between Rhea, her property supervisor, and a roommate’s guardian descended right into a shouting match. Administration claimed they might withhold your complete $6,200 safety deposit to cowl “damages” and the unpaid Might lease.
In response, Rhea compiled a Google Drive containing emails, photographs, and textual content messages that she believed would show the owner’s neglect and despatched it over.
After a follow-up e mail greater than a month later, Rhea and her roommates lastly acquired a response that their safety deposit could be returned on July 7.
“It simply actually opened my eyes when it comes to, sadly, how corrupt New York Metropolis landlords could be,” Rhea mentioned. “I believe they anticipate you to not go to lengths to carry them accountable for issues.”
The HPD case
Whereas Rhea recovered her deposit, the musician’s try to carry the constructing house owners and administration formally accountable fell flat.
Previous to the contractor’s discovery of the lacking insulation, an HPD inspector had visited the unit, verbally confirming the mildew as a serious violation.
But, the HPD case was closed with none follow-up and a message that mentioned: “HPD carried out an inspection of this criticism. The circumstances noticed by the inspector didn’t violate the housing legal guidelines enforced by HPD. The criticism has been closed.”
Rhea, who had been anticipating to go to small claims courtroom to refund the safety deposit, tried to reopen the case. Her calls to HPD escalated by way of numerous bureaucratic channels till an operator instructed mailing bodily photographs to the HPD Chief, then gave her a cellphone contact to report the inspector.
Nonetheless, she says she was as a substitute given the quantity for the Division of Homeland Safety.
Exhausted, Rhea filed formal complaints to the Mamdani Administration and her NYC Council Member.
“I am pissed off that there is nothing actually holding folks accountable,” Rhea mentioned. “I am pissed off with how HPD dealt with it as a result of on-line it is displaying as only a closed criticism and never a violation.”
Transferring on
Since she moved out, Rhea’s outdated condo has already been rented out to different tenants for $6495 monthly, in response to StreetEasy. She fears they might face related points.
“There wasn’t time to completely handle the building-wide points,” the tenant mentioned. “Perhaps they lastly mounted the rooftop leaking, however I don’t know what is going on on behind the wall.”
Rhea has since secured a brand new condo on the Higher West Aspect after spending the summer time subletting in Washington Heights.
“I needed a pre-war constructing,” Rhea defined. “I do not desire a new construct. I would like one thing with thick partitions that has been maintained.”
Regardless of the nightmare expertise, her affection for town stays intact.
“I nonetheless would not wish to dwell anyplace else within the states for lots of causes,” Rhea mentioned. “It is a actually wonderful metropolis to dwell in, however once they say that it makes you robust, they don’t seem to be mendacity.”
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