Mayor Mamdani announced a $2.1 million settlement with A&E Real Estate, requiring the landlord to correct more than 4,000 building code violations across 14 properties — paying $150,000 per building. It's the largest settlement in HPD Anti-Harassment Unit history. Good news, right?

Sort of.

A&E's portfolio spans 170 buildings across NYC. The settlement covers 14 of them. That leaves 156 buildings — and 21,664 open violations — where tenants are still waiting.

What tenants actually lived through

One tenant who has lived in an A&E building on 81st Street for over 13 years described elevators broken for months — until the day after a public announcement, when they were suddenly repaired. Every winter brought chronic heat failures, with A&E routinely shutting off heat overnight during hours when HPD inspections aren't typically conducted.

"This is not about broken machinery," she said. "It's about neglect, indifference, and lives treated as disposable — until public pressure makes inaction inconvenient."

The data behind the headlines

We pulled A&E's full portfolio through Brix. Their buildings show a pattern of hazardous Class C violations, 311 heat complaints spiking every winter, and ECB fines that sat unpaid for years. The settlement buildings aren't outliers — they're the ones that got caught.

In fact, the building with the most serious violations in the city's entire 2026 Alternative Enforcement Program list is 34-15 Parsons Blvd — registered to an LLC within the A&E Real Estate Holdings portfolio.

What this means for renters

If you're considering an A&E building, look it up before you sign. The settlement is a start — but 4,000 violations across 14 buildings doesn't erase a portfolio-wide pattern of 21,664 open violations across 170 properties. On Brix, you can see every open violation, the full ownership chain, and whether things are getting better or worse under current ownership.

$2.1 million sounds like accountability. Divided across 170 buildings, it's $12,353 per property, a rounding error for a landlord sitting on 21,664 open violations.