A Bronx landlord is facing criminal charges after prosecutors say he demolished walls and ceilings inside an occupied apartment building, with a tenant and eight children still living there at the time, News 12 reported. The case has drawn attention because of the danger that the work is said to have posed to a family who remained inside the property while it was being torn apart.
Prosecutors identified the landlord as 31-year-old Joel Grunbaum, who was arraigned a day earlier on a charge of filing a false permit. The accusation centres not only on the demolition itself but also on the paperwork that allowed it to begin, raising questions about how such work came to be authorised in a building that was still being lived in at the time.
According to prosecutors, Grunbaum claimed that the building was vacant when he sought permission for the work, even though a family was still living inside. That false declaration, they say, is what cleared the way for crews to start tearing out walls and ceilings in a structure that was, in reality, anything but empty at the time the demolition got under way.
As the demolition continued, investigators say the building was left structurally unsafe, effectively turning the family's home into a potential hazard around them. The combination of ongoing demolition work and continued occupancy by a household that included young children sits at the very heart of the case that prosecutors have now brought against the landlord.
Despite the scale of the work described by prosecutors, no one was injured in the incident, a detail that stands out given that a tenant and eight children were said to be inside while the building was being taken apart around them. The absence of injuries has done nothing to lessen the seriousness of the charge that authorities are now pursuing in the matter.
Grunbaum is due back in court in August, when the case against him is expected to move forward. For now, the charge of filing a false permit underscores how a paperwork claim that a building was empty allegedly placed a family with eight children directly at risk inside their own home, even as no physical harm ultimately came to any of them.