Landlords get new fines from city moments after ousting sex abuser’s squatters

A pair of weary Brooklyn landlords can’t catch a break from city building inspectors, who slapped them with new fines moments after authorities cleared the properties of squatters brought in by a convicted sex offender.

Just as the NYPD and a city marshal finally ousted 10 people who had been illegally living in Mohammad Choudhary and Boysin Lorick’s trio of dilapidated Neptune Avenue homes, the Buildings Department swooped in and issued $5,000 in violations, the landlords charged.

“It’s just like beating a dead body,” Choudhary cried about the fresh penalties. 

The hapless homeowners purchased the crumbling structures in Coney Island for $1.3 million as an investment in 2019, only to find Peter Fonseca, 45, living in a garage behind 3508 Neptune Ave.

Choudhary and Lorick were stuck out of town for months during the pandemic, and returned to find Fonseca and his wife, Trina, had been renting out units illegally to violent squatters during the pandemic, the landlords claim. DOB meanwhile buried the pair with more than $370,000 in violations and fines for the houses’ decaying condition — even though the squatters prevented the two from making repairs.

The latest slap from the city came after inspectors found a garage had been converted by Fonseca into an illegal apartment.

“Inspectors knew that we have no control over property and we have suffered heavy losses,” Choudhary said, estimating they owe an additional $100,000 in taxes and utilities. “Still they are issuing us violations.”

Property owners are required to keep their properties in “safe and code compliant condition at all times,” DOB spokesman Andrew Rudansky said, adding Choudhary and Lorick could present a defense at a violation hearing if they “believe they are not responsible for the unpermitted work.”