Streetview of 2410 Washington Avenue. © 2025 Google
A Bronx landlord has been fined $10.14 million over hazardous conditions in a Belmont apartment building, one of the largest housing court judgments in city history. The order, issued Wednesday by Judge Diane Lutwak, resolves a case brought by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) against Karan Singh, owner of the 15-story Fordham Towers at 2410 Washington Avenue. According to Gothamist, Singh failed to provide heat on 10 days and hot water on 17 days between 2023 and 2024. The building currently has 540 open violations, 145 of which are classified as “immediately hazardous.”
HPD alleges that Singh and his associates consistently failed to remedy many of the violations and falsely reported that some had been fixed, according to court papers.
“Respondents have failed to correct unsafe conditions that pose a threat to the health and safety of their tenants for years on end and display a callous disregard for immediately hazardous conditions like lack of heat and hot water,” Benjamin Bisaro, an HPD attorney, said, according to Gothamist.
Bisaro said the landlords “engaged in this conduct with the intent of defying the law, intimidating their tenants, and avoiding enforcement action.”
Additionally, the suit alleged that the landlord threatened tenants with reprisals from management if they reported the hazardous conditions to city agencies.
Built in 1967, the tower contains 169 apartments. In addition to heat and hot water issues, city records cite defective self-closing doors, broken entry locks, and roach and mice infestations.
Zoe Kheyman, a Legal Aid Society attorney who represents some of the building’s tenants, told Gothamist in an email that the ruling was one of the largest in Housing Court history.
“For years, our clients — tenants in buildings owned by Karan Singh and Rajmattie Persaud — have endured unlivable conditions, chronic disrepair, and neglect,” Kheyman said. “Many of our clients continue to suffer — elevators remain out of service, forcing elderly residents, people with disabilities, and families to climb up 17 flights of stairs during a dangerous summer heatwave. These conditions are inhumane, and immediate action is needed.”
Singh, who also owns an apartment building in Morrisania, ranked 17th on the public advocate’s Worst Landlord List of 2023.
The judgment marks another example of the city’s growing efforts to crack down on negligent landlords. In March 2022, HPD ramped up enforcement at 250 apartment buildings across the five boroughs that had amassed nearly 40,000 open housing code violations.
The following month, the city filed a lawsuit against landlord Moshe Piller, who had accumulated over 1,900 violations for dangerous conditions across 15 buildings he owns in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The suit aimed to pressure Piller to repair his properties or face “tens of millions” in civil penalties.
In April 2025, the city seized a Bronx building from a negligent landlord for the first time in more than seven years. After a decade of tenant organizing, the city foreclosed on the 49-unit property at 2201-2205 Davidson Avenue in University Heights, owned by David Kornitzer. As of February, Kornitzer owed $28 million in back taxes, emergency repairs, and other fees, and had racked up numerous housing violations.
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