THE SPECIAL CASE OF 1475 KING ST. W.

We first rated this building in January 2004. Conditions were very bad, as you can see for yourself here. As a result of our survey, we nominated the landlord of this building, Rolin Realty, for the 2004 Golden Cockroach Award. Rolin was edged out of the competition by Tobis and the Wynns, but the name remained on our website, in our news release announcing the nominees.

In June or 2005, we received a call from the owner of Rolin Realty. He explained that a lot of work had been done on 1475 King St. recently and suggested that, since the building was now much improved, it would only be fair for us to remove his company’s name from our website as a bad landlord.

We at the PTA are always pleased when our work results in improvements for tenants, so we welcomed this news and promised to survey the building again. If conditions had improved as much as we were told, we would be happy to note the improvement here on our website.

In July 2005, we went back to 1475 King St. to survey conditions again. We were welcomed by the superintendent, who spoke to us at length, gave us free reign to check out the building and speak to tenants, showed us around, and gave us his perspective on the situation. We were happy to see that in many ways the building has improved – the courtyard was clean and pretty, the decrepit basement was no longer rented out to tenants, and some structural repairs appeared to be under way. Many of the tenants we spoke to that night were very pleased with the current situation, and agreed that much progress had been made. Many had no complaints with their rental situation.

At the same time, however, we met a number of tenants who told us a different story. They were not convinced that conditions had improved, they told us of ongoing problems with their units or common areas, and some took us into their apartments to show us continued problems that ranged from electrical and security, a caved-in ceiling and a garbage-strewn basement, to broken linoleum, stuck doors and missing window screens.

As a result of these discussions, we began to question how much the building had changed. A few weeks later, we heard from a group of frustrated tenants from the building, who were able to outline in detail the problems that continue to plague them. They provided us a with a list of issues at 1475 King St., the vast majority of which remain unresolved. They also showed us a number of photos documenting cockroach and mouse problems and crumbling plaster.

We are now working with these tenants to try to resolve the ongoing problems in this building. Until they are resolved, we have concluded that we cannot describe 1475 King St. as an improved building, and nor can we remove the negative references to it from our website.

Mr. Rolin, we challenge you to deal decisively with the remaining problems in your building – and when you do, we will be happy to credit you for the improvements at your building on our website.