by Joel Meyer
NARRATION MEYER: Two days before he died from carbon monoxide poisoning, Harvey Needleman and his new neighbor David Lacompt joked about the company that owns and operates 535 3rd Avenue. It was the first -- and last -- time that the Belgium native spoke to Needleman. They discussed a sticky door on LaCompt's apartment on the fifth floor.
TAPE LECOMPT (:24) Mostly we talked about the management that wasn't good. Because he said something is wrong with your door. You know, I said I know I have to slam it, I'm sorry I'm making noise. He says yes I understand if you can do something about it because I know management is never going to react on it about it. Sure Harvey, I'll look at it. Well it was nice meeting you. We talked for half an hour and that was it.
NARRATION MEYER: LeCompt and his fellow tenants are now living in hotels while the building is tested. At the press conference, tenants claimed that Pan Am Equities has long ignored their complaints and maintenance requests, even when a fire broke out in the building's boiler room last fall. In the aftermath of Sunday's tragedy, tenants said Pan Am Equities has not returned their calls. The group has united to seek legal help, but Alexis Stansky says she and her roommate are more concerned about resuming a normal life, for now.
TAPE STANSKY: We haven't decided quite yet. We don't know where we want to go. We just really want at first to be back in our apartment for now and figure out what our next step is going to be.
NARRATION MEYER: Pan Am Equities is part of United Enterprises, a company that owns or manages 3000 other apartments in Manhattan. City Council member Eva Moskowitz criticized the slow response of company with such vast resources.
TAPE MOSKOWITZ (:06) To not return phone calls and assist tenants in a very trying time is an outrage.
State senator Liz Kruger joined her Murray Hill constituents. She says that she receives many complaints from tenants in the 26th District who say their landlords do not respond to complaints about carbon monoxide. Kruger says the city needs more building inspectors, which have dwindled in number during the last decade.
TAPE KRUGER (:19) We need to re-evaluate a process called of what's called self-certification where once tenants have made a complaint and an inspector for a city agency has come out and found that that complain is valide verified, we too frequently allow the owner to self-certify that they've fixed the problem, and it gets taken off the books.
NARRATION MEYER: In the coming months, the Manhattan District Attorney will conduct an investigation into the accident in conjunction with several city departments. A spokesperson for the Department of Buildings says that until now, the building had not received a complaint in ten years. Tenant Alicia Davlin says New Yorkers shouldn't leave safety concerns up to their landlords.
TAPE (Davlin :17) Just because you're paying market value for your apartment don't assume that everything's being taken care of. Check your fire alarm. make sure your batteries are there. Get a carbon monoxide monitor. You can't trust that you're paying a certain amount of money and you should be safe.
NARRATION MEYER; For Columbia Radio News, I'm Joel Meyer.