'Reckless negligence': Judge orders former landlord to pay nearly $5.1 million for lead paint violations
November 7, 2022- BUFFALO NEWS
By Dale Anderson
A former landlord who was considered one of the worst in Buffalo has been ordered to pay nearly $5.1 million in penalties, restitution and forfeited rent for lead paint violations, State Attorney General Letitia James announced.
State Supreme Court Justice Catherine Nugent Panepinto handed down the decision Monday against Angel Elliot Dalfin, whose rental properties included more than 150 single-family and two-family homes in predominantly low-income neighborhoods.
Angel Elliot Dalfin, until recently a fugitive, is considered by government officials to have been among the worst – if not the worst – rental housing operators in Buffalo.
“As a result of his reckless negligence, more than two dozen children are suffering the effects of lead poisoning,” James said.
It is believed to be the largest penalty ever imposed for a lead-paint violation case in Western New York. Panepinto directed that the money be used for efforts to combat lead paint poisoning.
Multiple cases of lead poisoning were reported at seven of Dalfin’s properties, she noted.
Panepinto pointed out that 16 lead hazards had remained unresolved for more than 1½ years in a house on Deshler Street and seven violations were not remedied for 877 days at a residence on Northampton Street.
The attorney general reported that Dalfin has sold or abandoned all of the properties he owned and managed in Buffalo. She also noted that her office has contacted all the new owners to tell them what lead abatement needs to be done and has informed all the tenants of their rights.
James said her office is working closely with Heart of the City Neighborhoods Inc., a nonprofit community redevelopment agency, to rehabilitate several houses formerly owned by Dalfin and provide safe conditions for former tenants in those houses.
The Attorney General’s Office charged that Dalfin failed to maintain the properties, allowed lead paint to deteriorate and misled tenants and purchasers about lead paint hazards, sometimes providing no information at all.
Lead disclosure law requires the property owner to disclose the presence of lead – not the local health department, said the Erie County Health Department’s public information officer.
Dalfin operated using a web of 19 companies incorporated in the states of Wyoming, Maryland, Delaware and New York, and he shuffled the properties among them, according to court records. Only two of the seven entities named as defendants in the state’s civil case were ever authorized to do business in New York, which meant that they could not legally evict their tenants. Nevertheless, between 2015 and 2020, Buffalo Housing Court records show that Dalfin and the defendant entities initiated at least 192 evictions.
In her decision, Panepinto cited an affidavit and testimony from Dr. Melinda S. Cameron, a pediatrician at Oishei Children’s Hospital and medical director of the WNY Lead Poisoning Prevention Resource Center, who said that children here had higher lead levels in their blood than children in Flint, Mich., where lead contaminated the drinking water.
Cameron testified that the prevalence of lead poisoning among children in Buffalo, particularly in impoverished Black neighborhoods, “is still terrible,” although some progress has been made.
Panepinto granted all of the $5,094,018.45 in penalties that the Attorney General’s Office sought.
“Further,” she declared, “the court directs the money be used by the City of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State to prevent, abate, mitigate and/or control the exposure of children to lead hazards.”
“An undetermined number of children and families have been severely and permanently injured by the intentional and cruel actions of the defaulting defendants,” she noted. “Justice requires that the money collected from them should be spent to stop the generational trauma inflicted on our Western New York community.”
The monetary judgments included:
• $630,000 for 126 violations based on false lead disclosures or no disclosures at all to tenants and property purchasers; the maximum $5,000 penalty for each violation
• $3,101,900 in restitution for county code violations related to lead poisoning; $100 per violation per day over 877 days from November 2019 through April 12, 2022
• $60,050 in restitution for Buffalo property management licensing violations; $50 per violation per day over 1,201 days through Jan. 1, 2021
• $21,590 in restitution for unpaid Buffalo rental registration fees
• $1,263,478.45 in disgorgement of rents received for the 63 homes cited for lead paint violations, for the time period starting when each of the properties was first cited
• $17,000 in allowances, costs and disbursements
“Concerted efforts are underway in Buffalo to combat the silent epidemic of lead poisoning that disproportionately impacts poor children and children of color living in old rental housing, but more must be done,” Panepinto observed in her decision. “Unsafe rental houses in East Buffalo, abandoned by landlords like the defendants in this action, must be made safe for tenants and their families.”
“It’s one of the worst cases of landlord predation and neglect that Buffalo has seen in decades. And it’s being punished accordingly,” writes The News’ Editorial Board.
Fugitive ex-landlord surrenders to face criminal charges of lead paint violations
Fugitive ex-landlord surrenders to face criminal charges of lead paint violations
At the height of his operation, Angel Elliot Dalfin owned or controlled more than 150 single- and two-family homes on the city’s East Side, rented mostly to low-income people of color.
At least 63 of the houses owned or controlled by Angel Dalfin were cited for lead paint hazards, and 29 children living in 22 of the homes suffered lead poisoning, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.