Daniel Ohebshalom NYC’s worst landlord beaten at prison after starting 60 day sentence following repeated housing code violations and other nefarious activities. Had racked up thousands of violations and millions of dollars in fines.
Define karma? A man consistently voted as one of NYC’s worst landlords was punched in the face by prisoners shortly after beginning his 60-day sentence at Rikers Island. The beating led to the landlord having to be hospitalized.
Daniel Ohebshalom, known as a ‘slumlord,’ for forcing his tenants to live in appalling squalor, was left with broken facial bones following the attack by inmates.
The assault happened in the intake area of the Eric M. Taylor Center around 12:15 p.m. on Friday, FOX5 reported. The assault occurred less than one day after Ohebshalom turning himself to authorities following the issuing of a warrant for his arrest earlier this month.
Repeatedly appeared on lists of NYC’s worst landlords
Ohebshalom had reportedly failed to perform hundreds of court-mandated repairs on his Manhattan properties and was found in contempt of court earlier this month.
After years of vainly trying to slap the slumlord with fines, NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) decided to ratchet up the pressure and secured an arrest warrant for Ohebshalom.
The warrant said that Ohebshalom and ‘his buildings have repeatedly appeared on lists of the worst landlords in New York City.’
The warrant continued that the ‘violations cited in the arrest warrant are extensive and include serious, immediately hazardous conditions that threaten not only the residents’ quality of life but their health and safety.’
3,293 open violations
The squalid conditions included ‘visible peeling lead paint, roach and mice infestations, inadequate electricity supply, and mold.’
Officials hoped to use Ohebshalom as an example, a way to warn other callous landlords that their nefarious business practices won’t go unpunished.
‘The arrest warrant serves as a strong message to landlords that New York City will not tolerate housing violations or tenants forced to live in unsafe conditions.’
In his two buildings along West 170th Street, Washington Heights, the city claimed that Ohebshalom and his company, Belmont Ventures LLC, had incurred 700 housing code violations related to the health and safety of the buildings’ tenants.
‘We caught up with him. He’s facing $3 million in fines and penalties, and he’s going to jail for 60 days,’ Adolfo Carrion Jr., commissioner of the department of HPD told media.
Carrion called Ohebshalom ‘the worst landlord in New York City.’ He’s not the only one who thinks so. In December, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams dubbed Ohebshalom, who had 3,293 open violations at the time, as the worst landlord in New York City.
$300,000 in illegal hotel fees
‘The reason we’re after this guy and his practices is because of the life of the people have been living there- it’s horrible,’ Carrion said.
‘People are dealing with mold, leaks, pests- rats and roaches- peeling paint, lead paint. Their children are exposed, seniors are exposed. It’s time to stop this nonsense,’ Carrion continued.
In October 2023, NYC’s HPD fined the ‘slumlord’ with $4.2 million in fines for allegedly running an illegal hotel out of rent-stabilized apartments and presiding over egregious conditions at a Hell’s Kitchen complex. A month later, HPD won its attempt to have an administrator take over management of the property and to prohibit Ohebshalom from collecting rent.
The city accused Ohebshalom of raking in more than $300,000 in illegal hotel fees after displacing tenants in rent-stabilized apartments at his Hell’s Kitchen properties, on top of the housing code violations of his Washington Heights properties.
After the warrant for his arrest was issued on March 8, Ohebshalom who lives in California turned himself in to the New York City Sherriff’s Office, at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 21.
The landlord was then taken to Rikers Island to begin his sentence, but his visit was interrupted when he was assaulted by another inmate.
Sources close to NBC don’t believe that Ohebshalom was targeted in the attack, as the assailant had threatened various other prisoners.
