New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Buffalo landlord Farhad Raiszadeh, his wife Shohre Zahedi, and their companies (Raiszadeh Group) for repeated and flagrant violations of lead safety laws at dozens of properties in East Buffalo. The Raiszadeh Group currently owns 75 properties and 47 of them — more than half — have been cited for lead paint hazard violations, and at least 16 children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning while living in those properties. In the complaint filed Tuesday, Attorney General James seeks to require the Raiszadeh Group to pay substantial penalties and restitution to the impacted families and disgorge all ill-gotten profits, such as rent payments, totaling potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. James is also seeking an order to stop the Raiszadeh Group’s harmful housing practices and require them to inspect every unit for lead hazards on a regular basis; swiftly remediate all lead exposure risks in a safe manner; and provide tenants with legal and accurate lead disclosures.
In addition to Raiszadeh and Zahedi, the Raiszadeh Group companies named in the lawsuit are Prime Heritage Homes, LLC, Premier Heritage Homes, LLC, Premium Heritage Homes, LLC, Maxinnova, Inc., and Maxinnova Defined Benefits Plan. Erie County and the City of Buffalo are co-plaintiffs in the action.
“In Buffalo and throughout New York, Black, and brown children and their families disproportionately suffer the lifelong impacts of lead paint exposure,” said Attorney General James. “We cannot allow landlords’ neglect to steal our children’s futures. We will hold the Raiszadeh Group accountable for their actions and will continue fighting to ensure all children are able to grow up in safe and healthy homes.”
Buffalo suffers some of the nation’s highest rates of childhood lead exposure. The health impacts of lead paint in rental housing are particularly acute in East Buffalo. Children who live in communities of color are 12 times as likely than children who live in predominately white neighborhoods to be diagnosed with an elevated blood lead level. Tens of thousands of rental homes in Buffalo constructed prior to 1978 contain lead paint, but when these properties are properly managed and maintained, lead poisoning can be prevented. Elevated blood lead levels are also more prevalent in Buffalo’s low-income neighborhoods than they are in high-income neighborhoods.
The Raiszadeh Group repeatedly and persistently failed to appropriately prevent and mitigate lead-based paint hazards in their buildings, despite receiving dozens of citations. From 2008 to the present, the Raiszadeh Group has owned and managed at least 78 single- and two-family homes and one apartment building, primarily rented to low-income families of color in Buffalo. Raiszadeh and Zahedi managed the Raiszadeh Group properties from their permanent residence in California, thousands of miles away from Buffalo. They have been managing these properties without the required property management license from the city and rented out the units without the required real estate broker’s license from the state.
A copy of the lawsuit is below:
