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The tenants who live in the Grand Avenue apartment building say they have watched the conditions in the building progressively deteriorate over the years.

Among the issues the tenants highlight are chipped paint, leaky ceilings, broken toilets, and holes in the floor.

"It's nasty,” said tenant Frank Gibbs. “It smells like mold. You got cockroaches that come out at night.”

Gibbs, who has lived in the building for three years, has taken the problems into his own hands – purchasing a cat to take care of the building's rat problem.

"Huge rats, I mean six inches and above," said tenant Frank Gibbs. "And they will stand in the living room at night and just look at me."

The city Department of Buildings has cited the building owner for several violations, including doing work without a permit and illegally converting the building from six apartments to eight.

The current building manager, Sam Weinberger says he took over the building just a few months ago and said the majority of the problems were caused by the previous managers.

Moreover, Weinberger says that he has signed an agreement promising to fix these problems by September 5th and that some of the repairs have already begun.

"Repairs 100 percent, I'm going to do it," Weinberger said. "Til when? Give me some time."

He denies converting part of the building into hostel rooms for international students. He says one of his tenants rented out his apartment without his knowing about it.

"He changed a few times the people there. As soon as I heard, I told them they have to be out,” Weinberger said.

The tenants say they still don't trust Weinberger. They have joined forces with the not-for-profit organization Pratt Area Community Council. It believes the building owner wants the rent-controlled tenants out to eventually get higher rents in a neighborhood where luxury apartments are being built.

"There has been harassment in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, for the last 10 years, especially for rent-controlled tenants,” said Hector Rivera of the Pratt Area Community Council.

The building manager is now taking the tenants to court because they stopped paying their rent. The tenants say they only stopped paying because the repairs were never made. They plan to take management to court to make sure their problems are fixed.