Jeffrey Siler in Newsday - Apartment had multiple code violations

BY JENNIFER BARRIOS
jennifer.barrios@newsday.com

March 4, 2007

Michael Gerenstein never should have lived in the basement apartment at 28 Sarah Dr., according to the Village of Lake Grove. Village code prohibits more than one family from living in a single-family dwelling.

Landlady Farry Sharif was cited last March for converting her basement and renting it to Gerenstein. She received a second citation -- on Aug. 1 at 11:45 p.m., less than an hour after an explosion set the house on fire.

Jeff Siler, a Garden City attorney representing the village, said the late-night citation came after village officials gained access to the basement. "The police wanted assistance in locating gas mains," Siler said.

When the officials saw the basement was an apartment, Siler said, they contacted code enforcement officer Max Brustmeyer. He issued Sharif an additional citation for having an illegal apartment, according to records. Those records show Sharif also has received several citations for excessive garbage.

Siler said Sharif was cited the first time after she approached the village for help in evicting Gerenstein, who had a year-long lease. Siler said the village has no power to evict a tenant.

Sharif complained about excessive people, noise and music in Gerenstein's apartment "all hours of the day and night," according to a Suffolk County police report. Police were called to the house 15 times on disturbance complaints from the time Gerenstein moved in until the day of the fire, according to records.

Sharif requested and received several adjournments, according to the village.

The village has since changed its law to allow officials to assume an illegal apartment exists if there are certain indicators outside the house, such as two separate mailboxes or a slew of garbage cans.

Just before the house burned, Sharif was scheduled to appear in village court on Sept. 12.

Sharif's lawyer, Robert Mayer of Patchogue, requested several adjournments since that date. Her next scheduled appearance is on March 27.

Mayer declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the house remains a vacant shell, boarded up and uninhabitable.

Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Inc.