In the Bronx, where most of the courtrooms are located in the bowels of the county courthouse at 161st St. and the Grand Concourse, medics routinely arrive to cart off those who have fainted in the stifling heat. The city's housing courts were created in 1973 to give tenants a forum to force landlords to make necessary repairs. Last year, tenants filed only 9,805 maintenance cases against landlords, winning about half of them. Landlords, meanwhile, brought 318,305 nonpayment cases against tenants. They won about 273,000.
Most tenants believe they are victims in the process.
Because housing is part of Civil Court, not Criminal Court, the state is not obligated to provide them with legal counsel. As a result, in most nonpayment cases, tenants and landlord attorneys hash out reimbursement plans in the hallways, atop trash cans or radiators. Tenant advocates say that in many cases, the tenants don't know what they are signing. Yet landlords counter that the system, with its delays and adjournments, is stacked against them. Even if you get the judgment, you don't get the money.