Tenant To Mandy: Please Don’t Fix My Apartment

Yvonne Watts said she doesn’t want Mandy Management to repair her bathroom mirror or replace her kitchen countertops — because she’s afraid that will raise the rent too high.

Watts lives with her teenaged daughter in a third-floor, two-bedroom apartment at 72 Mill River St.

That six-unit apartment building just east of Jocelyn Square has been owned since 2008 by an affiliate of one of the city’s largest private landlords, Mandy Management.

Watts, a New Haven native who works night shifts as a stocker at a nearby Target, said she’s lived at 72 Mill River for over a decade. She moved from a downstairs apartment to her current third-floor rental roughly six years ago.

During a tour of her building and apartment, Watts made two seemingly contradictory arguments to this reporter that, upon further explanation, reveal a housing price-maintenance bind Watts finds herself in.

On the one hand, she said that Mandy Management needs to address problems with the property. She pointed to a bathroom mirror and vanity with chipping paint, aged and worn-down kitchen countertops, broken bathroom floor tiles, and a back wooden porch and steps that she said need stabilization.

On the other hand, she said time and again she does not want Mandy to do any of the work.

“It’s not easy to live here,” she said. But, ​“if they fix anything else, they’re going to go up on rent.”

Watts said that was her experience not too long ago, when Mandy replaced her apartment’s wooden floors, and subsequently increased the monthly rent from $1,050 to $1,300.

“I don’t want them to fix nothing. It’s not worth it,” she repeated. Instead, she’s waiting for her daughter to graduate from high school so she can move their family into less expensive housing out of town, likely in West Haven. Even though her lease runs through next August, she said, she’s already begun packing — as evidenced by the dozen U‑Haul-branded cardboard boxes filled with her and her daughter’s belongings, piled high against the living room’s walls.

Meanwhile, the city’s housing code inspection agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), has failed 72 River St. twice over the past three months during initial and follow-up inspections required by the city’s residential rental licensing program.

The first inspection took place on June 18, the second on Sept. 5.

The June 18 report cited a hole in the decking in the second-floor rear porch and noted that the kitchen and bathroom ceilings in one of the apartments — but not the one Watts live in — need to be repaired.

LCI Executive Director Liam Brennan confirmed that those items were not fixed by the time of the Sept. 5 follow-up inspection, when the property again failed.

Mandy Management cannot receive a residential rental license for this property, as required by local law, until those issues are addressed. The megalandlord could be fined if they don’t follow through on the city-mandated repairs.

Mandy: Rent Increases Driven By Market, Not Maintenance

In an email comment, Mandy Management CEO Yudi Gurevitch told the Independent that his company’s maintenance team has already made the necessary repairs to the second-floor porch.

“However, despite multiple attempts to contact the tenant [not Watts, but a different tenant] for interior access to the apartment, we have been unsuccessful and as a result, unable to complete the kitchen and bathroom ceiling repairs,” he wrote. ​“We remain committed to finishing these repairs and will continue our efforts to reach the tenant. We aim to resolve issues promptly and to ensure the property meets all required standards.”

Gurevitch was asked Watts’s concerns about not wanting her landlord to maintain the property out of a concern that such work will result in higher rents. He, ​“we value her feedback and understand her hesitation regarding further repairs due to concerns about rent increases. Our goal is to balance necessary property improvements with maintaining affordable housing for our tenants. Rent increases are not correlated to repairs and are driven by factors outside of our control, such as rising property taxes, insurance costs, and overall market conditions.”

He concluded, ​“We strive to keep our rents competitive while also ensuring our properties remain in good condition. We are open to further discussions with Yvonne to address her concerns and find solutions that works for both parties.”

LCI’s Liam Brennan told the Independent that, under the city’s housing code, if the owner notifies LCI that they are unable to gain access due to a tenant, his agency would contact the tenant and make an appointment with the tenant, landlord, and an inspector.

LCI now has to reinspect to check the back porch. And, if the tenant doesn’t allow the landlord in to make repairs, ​“we will not take action against the landlord since they have no right to enter the apartment independently and they need the tenant to let them in.”