Greenpoint Couple Say Landlord Evicted Them Due to Their Pregnancy

Most couples expecting their first child spend part of those nine months joyously prepping the new baby’s room. But one local couple hopes to have somewhere to call home after they say their landlord evicted them due to their pregnancy. 

Ari Candelier tells Greenpointers that their landlord demanded that he and his partner (whose name we are withholding for privacy reasons) leave just a few days after signing a lease at 130 India Street because they didn’t disclose the pregnancy before signing. 

Candelier said the landlords also demanded a second security deposit and a guarantor after the couple moved in. The building’s landlords, Joe Bromson and his wife Alice, operating as India Street Properties LLC, claimed that the building was not insured to have kids. 

Ask anyone who recently mounted an apartment search in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and they’ll tell you that the rents are high, the inventory is low, and the competition to find a place is fierce. The couple hurried to find a place before the baby arrived, hoping to avoid some hassle and score a good deal by working directly with owners. They found 130 India Street online and set up a time to view it. Priced at $3,200 a month for a two-bedroom, the unit promised to be a steal compared to most market-rate units in the area. Candelier first met the Bromsons when he came to tour the unit. As a Williamsburg native, Candelier is no stranger to Joe Bromson’s old-school way of doing things. But those quirks, such as requiring the rent in cash, belied who Candelier felt like was a distrustful personality, and the relationship between the two quickly soured. 

“He was very aggressive from the beginning. He was like, ‘Hey, this is my property. I’ve dealt with many troublesome tenants,'” Candelier tells Greenpointers. 

Bromson apparently demanded the money on the spot, even though Candelier explained that he didn’t have it, as he just wanted to see the place first. Candelier says he also persistently tried to get more information about his partner, telling him that he needed to confirm her existence. But after Candelier introduced her through FaceTime, Bromson reportedly stated, “Ok, she’s not Black,” and doggedly inquired about Candelier’s family background. In a phone call with Greenpointers, Bromson denied making the statement. 

His partner later came to tour the place, and the couple decided to take it, officially moving in on January 18. 

It was then that Bromson allegedly asked for an additional security deposit.

The demand took the new tenants by surprise. They already agreed upon the terms of the lease and signed the papers (Bromson says that the couple never signed a lease agreement, but what they had signed previously was just the application). Under the law, a landlord can only ask for no more than one month’s rent as a security deposit. Bromson blamed it on previous tenants screwing him over. Candelier told him he’d take care of it after Martin Luther King Day on Monday.

But Candelier says that the Bromsons showed up on Monday anyway and barged into their apartment while his partner was taking a shower. Bromson expressed dissatisfaction with Candelier’s father acting as a guarantor, allegedly telling Candelier: “Your savings account shows that you a good amount of money. Just send me the $3,200, we shake hands, or else you have to leave.” 

Two days later, the Bromsons again showed up unannounced the next morning, this time addressing the pregnancy. Bromson felt like the couple had deceived him and demanded they leave immediately. (Bromson denies ever entering Candelier’s unit unannounced.) The couple asked for more time; in an email exchange seen by Greenpointers, Bromson gave them until 1 pm the following Saturday.

Bromson tells Greenpointers that he and his wife never had a formal lease agreement with the couple, though he confirmed that Candelier paid him $3,200 as a security deposit. I asked why they would let them move in without a lease, and Alice Bromson said it was for a week-long trial period. Joe Bromson says he was “lied to” because, on the application, Candelier listed two people, whereas Bromson said they should have listed three. Under New York law, landlords cannot discriminate against tenants with children or “require that tenants remain childless during their tenancy.” A tenant has no legal obligation to disclose a pregnancy, and a landlord cannot evict a tenant because of a pregnancy. The Bromsons denied that the pregnancy was the reason they evicted the couple, but rather, the lack of documentation and guarantor. 

Bromson said that he doesn’t always provide a lease, calling the legal system “biased” against landlords.

The building’s troubles go back decades. In 2001, two residents died after an arsonist set the building on fire (referred to in a New York Post article as an illegal single-room occupancy, as a tenant was living in the ground floor commercial space). The arson case remains officially unsolved. At the time, neighbors also told the outlet that more than 100 people had lived there in the past two to three years, due to Bromson’s predilection for evictions. The building still has an open violation for the illegal residential space, as Bromson has not provided the paperwork to close it out (though he did pay a penalty of $800 in 2001). A tenant successfully sued him in 2012 for withholding his security deposit (a civil court jury dismissed Bromson’s countersuit). Bromson says he withheld the deposit because the tenant had damaged the unit. 

In 2014, a neighboring business even noted Bromson’s alleged proclivity to barge in uninvited. Early, a coffee shop whose courtyard abuts 130 India Street, brought the Bromsons to court for repeatedly using the courtyard as a shortcut to the back entrance, despite no agreement between the two of them to do so (in a legal filing, Early said they once noticed the padlock to the back gate had been cut off, which they suspected the Bromsons of doing). A judge ruled in Early’s favor, and Bromson was required to cease the trespassing. The Bromsons are still in the process of appealing the decision.

130 India Street does not have a Certificate of Occupancy, which it is not required to have because it was built before 1938. Buildings with only one or two units are not required to register with the city’s Housing Preservation and Development as long as the property owner or family member lives on the premises. According to property records and Candelier, the Bromsons do not live at 130 India Street, meaning that the building should be registered. Asked whether or not they live there, the Bromsons demurred.

The city’s Department of Buildings told Greenpointers that they knew the building had just two legal residential units. However, even after the 2001 fire, Bromson allegedly continued to rent out the ground-floor commercial space as an apartment. According to DOB records, complaints about the arrangement date as far back as 1989. Though he was fined in 2001, the agency was never able to substantiate further complaints, as they were apparently unable to gain access to check it out; they most recently attempted an investigation in 2019. 

This year, HPD recorded six complaints about living conditions made within four days, from January 23 through 27. Four complaints concern lack of heating, and one concerns rodents; all but one have been closed. 

Bromson purchased the property in 1987, under the name Joseph Zohar (he later changed his name to Joe Bromson). He later transferred the property to his company, India Street Properties LLC. He also owns the building at 122 India Street, whose registration with the HPD lapsed in 2021; that building has several open violations for failure to register. 

Candelier and his partner managed to leave 130 India after just a few days. While the couple initially enjoyed an easy pregnancy, Candelier says that his partner has now been experiencing cramping, which became severe enough to prompt a hospital stay. He speculates that the stress from the eviction could be a contributing factor. 

The housing rights law firm Communities Resist is now working with the couple.

“I just feel like this is someone that’s gonna get away with this behavior for years to come until someone says, ‘Wait a minute, who are you?'” Candelier expressed at the end of our phone call. “Someone needs to highlight this.”