Tenants displaced by 2023 Queens apartment fire sue landlord over stalled repairs

More than two years after a fire destroyed their Queens building, tenants say repairs have not even begun.

Now, they're taking their landlord to court.

Tenants' lawsuit

The building at 43-09 47th Ave. remains uninhabitable after a five-alarm fire on December 20, 2023. The FDNY cited a blowtorch illegally wielded by a landlord-hired contractor. 

Tenants are suing landlord A&E Real Estate, alleging it was A&E's negligence and omissions that caused the fire that left roughly 200 people homeless days before Christmas.

"They are just living in limbo and instability because A&E refuses to do their part of rebuilding their homes after the fire," Council Member Julie Won said.

She points out that A&E's president ranked atop the Public Advocate's 2025 Worst Landlords list. She accuses the company of stalling repairs to force out rent-stabilized tenants and flip units to market rate.

"We want to preserve every single one of those rent-stabilized units," Won said.

A&E did not respond to these allegations but told CBS News New York in a statement:

"Since the day of the fire, we have taken every possible step to rebuild the building. Sadly, the property insurance company has shown zero interest in paying out claims despite its obligations and is preventing the building from being rebuilt.

"Let us be clear: if it were up to A&E, we would start rebuilding this property tomorrow. We know how challenging this has been on our residents, which is why we offered every impacted household a new apartment in our portfolio at their existing rent, even if it came at a loss to A&E. While we did so, we also provided financial support for essentials and paid for hotel accommodations. We have always put our residents first.

"We look forward to working with the residents, elected officials, all counsel and other stakeholders to compel the insurer to meet its obligations and let our residents get back into their homes."

A&E is taking legal action against its carrier Seneca, which did not respond to requests for comment.

"Nothing's being done"

Tenant Faith Little says it's painful to walk down 47th Avenue where she once lived. 

"I just think about things that are happening in the building and the decay that's happening because nothing's being done," she said. "It is devastating to see, just an unusual amount of sadness and what I would call a complicated grief."

Little says A&E offered alternate apartments for rent, but they were too far away.

"One of the big things that I have in my life is picking up my nephews after school and being a part of their lives, and everything would have taken me out of Sunnyside," she said.

Now, she's living in a market-rate apartment full of borrowed furniture. 

"It doesn't feel like my home," she said.

She says the extra $600 she now pays in rent each month is a challenge with her salary as an educator.

The tenants' attorney Brett Gallaway says he's working to ensure compensation is paid.

"We've attempted in numerous good-faith mediations to try to resolve the claims with A&E and, more importantly, A&E's excess carrier Chubb," Gallaway said. "We've found them to be obstructionist in connection with offering appropriate levels of damages to the tenants, who obviously have suffered great losses from the fire itself but, more importantly, continue to suffer losses every month because over half of the units at 43-09 47th Avenue were rent-stabilized." 

Chubb declined to comment for this story.

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