Tal Levi

If you were a landlord with over 300 open code violations, you probably wouldn’t think to make TikToks bragging about how you buy properties for cheap, charge high rents, and then don’t bother to maintain them.

But Tal Levi isn’t your average landlord. One of Rochester’s top evictors, Levi is an Israeli real-estate investor who owns 106 units in Rochester though he lives in NYC. He exemplifies a system of white out-of-town landlords keeping BIPOC families in slum conditions while exploiting them for rent. Between June to January 2022 alone, he filed over thirty evictions, primarily mothers of color (most of his tenants are BIPOC). That’s not counting all the tenants who received a pay or quit notice or eviction notice who then vacated the property without going through the courts.

As for those 300 plus violations, they include mice infestations, leaking pipes, holes in the walls and ceiling, windows that don’t open or won’t lock, unclean ducts, missing smoke alarms, and missing carbon monoxide alarms. All these were found at just three of Levi’s properties (keep in mind he owns 106 units throughout the city).

These violations don’t just demonstrate Levi’s disdain for his tenants’ dignity. They also show how little he values their lives. Windows that won’t open, missing carbon monoxide alarms—these violations could have lethal consequences. But instead of fixing these problems with the money he earns from exorbitant rents, he instead publicizes how little he cares online.

Rochester tenants don’t deserve a slumlord like Tal Levi. No one does.