Flatbush Brokerage Fined $352,250 for Blacklisting 203 Renters

A Flatbush brokerage pulled housing court records on rental applicants for six years, then used those records to turn people away for having once been a tenant in a landlord-tenant case, sometimes as the one who filed it. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement September 18 requiring Brooklyn High Rise LLC and its principal broker, Joseph Kenig, to pay $352,250 in penalties and restitution after finding the firm illegally denied 203 renters on that basis between July 15, 2019, and September 5, 2025.

Why it matters

New York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act made this exact conduct illegal in 2019: using a past or pending landlord-tenant case to reject a rental applicant, codified at Real Property Law section 227-f. The law exists because a tenant who once went to housing court, including one who won, can otherwise be locked out of the rental market on that history alone. The findings describe a firm that kept requesting the data anyway from its screening vendor, Weimark Credit Information Services, years after the law took effect, and used it to deny more than one in five applicants whose reports contained a court record. For agents and brokerages citywide, the case prices a practice some may still be running through a vendor’s default settings rather than a deliberate choice.

The numbers

The Assurance of Discontinuance, Assurance No. 26-054, finds that of roughly 2,558 rental applications Brooklyn High Rise processed, 1,015 came back with landlord-tenant court data attached, and 203 of those applicants, about 20 percent, were denied after the firm reviewed that history. Separately, it finds the firm charged 300 applicants a “good faith deposit” of $500 to $750 to hold a unit, above the $20 screening-fee cap under Real Property Law section 238-a, and did not always refund it when an application was withdrawn or denied. The $352,250 settlement splits into $202,250 in civil penalties and a $150,000 restitution fund, held in the firm’s attorney’s escrow account for applicants who lost a deposit. A further $50,000 penalty tranche is earmarked for the city’s Affordable Housing settlement fund at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. New York’s Department of State lists Brooklyn High Rise as an active LLC based at 1010 Rogers Avenue in Flatbush, with its own biennial filing overdue since April 2023.

What’s next

Brooklyn High Rise and Kenig are now under a three-year injunction barring them from seeking or using landlord-tenant court records in tenant screening, and from asking about criminal conviction history before a conditional offer is made, a separate violation found under the city’s Fair Chance in Housing Law. The firm must notify its screening vendors in writing within 30 days and post public notice on its listings that it no longer reviews court history. The restitution fund opens for claims once funded, with payments capped at the deposit amount, up to $750 per household. Renters who believe they were denied housing over a court record can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office. More from our New York desk, which also covered the Attorney General’s move to protect an Elmhurst burial ground from foreclosure this month.