Mickey Naftali (Instagram Photo / Naftali Group)
Ahmet Najat Ossu is not going to move. For 15 years he has lived in the same apartment – one bedroom with a private deck on the top floor of a building on the Upper West Side. Even when Israeli developer Mickey Naftali, CEO of the Naftali Group, purchased the building in Manhattan for $ 70 million last June and told tenants they must move, Mr. Ozzo planned to stay.
His opinion could not be changed even with a $ 30,000 takeover bid, eviction notice or even a $ 25 million lawsuit that Naftali recently filed against him. Recently the developer even placed an industrial air filter outside Mr. Ozzo’s door, and the blower moved non-stop, with the aim of convincing him to evacuate.
Still, Mr. Ozzo will not move. “Two things: the first is that I have the right to be here, and the second is that I have nowhere to go,” he told the New York Times. The Naftali group says Mr. Ozso is aiming for a seven-figure payment and is therefore halting the real estate initiative.
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Under normal circumstances, Mr Ozzo, 52, may have already been evicted from the building at 215 West 84th Street.
But until recently, Mr. Ozzo, a freelance software engineer, was unemployed. In January he applied for an emergency rental assistance program, a New York State program created during the plague to help tenants pay rent late. In most cases, a tenant cannot be evicted while his application is open. If Mr Ozzo’s request for assistance is approved, he may be eligible to stay in the apartment for at least another year – a time he says he will have to build labor savings he started in March to meet the income requirements of others. Buildings for rent.
Tenant Ossu (New York Times Screenshot)
Of the 128 apartments, only 16 still have tenants, said David Sharaf, the lawyer representing the Naftali group. Mr Ozzo is the only tenant who has not agreed to move, he said. Mr Ozzo and Adam Laitman Bailey, his lawyer, believe the air filter and security camera recently installed in the hallway outside his apartment, trained on his front door, are bullying tactics.
“It sounds like a jet,” Mr. Ozzo said. “It feels like it’s in the back of your head all the time.” Mr Sharaf said the air filter was “actually designed for his health and safety”, although there has been no active construction near the apartment recently. “There was no harassment, period,” Mr. Sharaf said, adding that there are cameras throughout the building, and the one near Mr. Ossu’s apartment was installed because of “general security issues,” Mr. Sharaf said, noting an incident between Mr. Ozzo and one of the building workers. Mr Ozzo said he called police after the employee became aggressive towards him because of a parking dispute.
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Mr. Ossu moved into an apartment in a building called Eagle Court in 2006 on the recommendation of a friend who lived there. He moved into a particularly sought-after apartment on the top floor, whose balcony overlooks the entire West Side, about a year later. His work as a software engineer has helped him keep pace with the increase in rents over the years. However, by October 2021, Mr. Ozzo was unemployed, exhausted his savings and could no longer pay the $ 3,350 rent on his apartment.
Ozso insists he is merely exercising his right to remain in the apartment under the Corona Tenant Protection Act. This week, the tenant tried to transfer $ 13,600 to the developer out of the rent he had failed to pay before, before applying for the assistance program. The legal team of Naftali Group stated that the company did not receive the payment.
According to Ozzo, shortly after a $ 25 million lawsuit was filed against him, he was offered a $ 30,000 payment to leave – but he turned it down. The Naftali Group denied the proposal in question. According to Ozzo, this is also a matter of principle. “When they started taking out my slander I said, ‘I’m going to fight this.'”
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