via NY Daily News
Damn landlords—they’re at it again.
Independently owned theater and bar Videology filed a lawsuit this week against their landlord, 308 Grand Reality LLC, which argues claims that they have not complied with the terms of their lease. According to a report from NYC real estate publication The Real Deal this past Tuesday,
Videology co-owners Wendy Chamberlain and James Leet filed their lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday, which claims that their landlord 308 Grand Realty LLC has brought numerous “petty allegations” against them in an attempt to justify terminating their lease.
These include problems with graffiti, a poorly swept sidewalk and noise issues that the landlord has never raised before. The suit also accuses the landlord of making numerous 311 calls, “all of which were found to be baseless,” just to harm Videology.
The bar and theater hope for an injunction to terminate the eviction proceedings as well as punitive damages.n Videology entered the lease on April 1, 2011 at 308 Bedford Ave, but has been a staple of the neighborhood since 2003.
So, are these baseless claims from the landlord or is the beloved Williamsburg bar and theater getting a taste of the rapid fire gentrification of the neighborhood?
Hello…no it’s not the Landlord’s fault that Videiology has failed to prevent noise emanating to the residential apartments making tenant;’s suffer for the past five years and by failing to file plans to abate the nuisance.
No…it’s not the Landlord fault he has created fire hazard using the rear as an illegal movie theater…
No it’s not the Landlord/s fault when over the past five yeasr tenant’s have called 311 over 50 times and requested with over 130 emails that the Landlord take action
No it’s not the LL fault that tenants were displaced due to the extreme sound level to the residential apartments making living there impossible.
No it’s not the LL fault that he stores flammable items in the boiler room
No it’s not the LL fault that he does not have a Public Assembly permit and allows more than the legal amount allowed .No it’s not the LL fault he refuses to invest any further monies to the space to bring the space into compliance with the Lease terms.
The Landlord and past and present tenants in the building have tried for five years for Videology to take action. but our words have fell on deaf ears.The suit brought against them unfortunately was are only option.Thank you
Most importantly…….It’s not the Landlord’s fault that the tenant has not corrected or made an attempt to correct any of the lease deficiencies within the fifteen days from his receipt of the Notice to Cure..This would have avoided this unfortunate action.Thank you
Baseless ? That’s a lie. I was a tenant in the building and made numerous comaints regarding the noise. The tenants in the back apartment made several comaints , too. A police officer finally told me that they wouldn’t take action because it’s a popular neighborhood and it’s brining people in. Several people moved out of the back apartment due to the noise. But the night the owners of the bat took over the apartment they lowered the volume and I couldn’t hear a peep from that side of my apartment . It all come down to the fact that James promised he would sound proff , but after construction was completed and bar opened he admitted he didn’t have the money to do. It.
As a tenant that used to live above Videology, I can assure everyone that these are not “noise issues that they landlord has never raised before”. Wendy and James had this coming to them. I told both them and George about this constantly. There are emails to prove it. They were absolutely awful to us and our neighbor for the time that we spent living above their establishment.
We could literally hear their music and movies playing, every. single. night. FWIW, we moved in before they had transitioned the place into a theater and a bar so its not like we should have known that it would be this loud when we moved in.
The thing is, I’d go down there to complain and there would be NOBODY watching the movie and they STILL wouldn’t turn it down. They would be playing Terminator 2 and I could tell which part of the movie would be playing. I bought a sound meter and it would be 80-90db’s at 3-4am in our bedroom. Try sleeping through that! During the Oscars one year, we muted our TV and could hear everything perfectly from down below. My wife and I called 311 on them constantly to no affect. There is a paper trail on the noise complaints a mile long.
We have moved on, but it brings me great joy to know that they’re finally having to pay the consequences for thinking that the rules don’t apply to them. Good riddance!