Queens apartment building hasn't had gas service for 8 months

NEW YORK - Fay Novotny and all of the tenants inside their apartment building in Bayside, Queens, have been living without gas in their kitchens for eight months. Cooking has become a long, stressful process.

"On two burners, two dishes, it takes a whole day, on a burner it cooks slow," Novotny said.

The laundry room dryers, which run on gas, also haven't been working since January. 

Fay, 98, was still hoping to have her independence. Now, her daughter Ruth Schelberg has been doing her food shopping and laundry. Fay is a Holocaust survivor. The fading ink of the numbered tattoo on her arm from the Auschwitz concentration camp is a constant reminder of the horrors she endured.

"I get so angry and I cry and she's suffered enough and to live like this and my mom is a cook," Schelberg said. "You have to understand she's from old school, she's on a special diet."

Other tenants of this co-op building complain that gas is included in their monthly maintenance bill.

We reached out to the management company and got a quick response.

The Lovett Group said there was a gas leak in January and they held an emergency meeting with residents in the lobby to inform them that gas would be turned off. They then hired plumbers and engineers to go into each apartment for a complete review. 

Then the process was put on hold when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The management company recently got the green light to proceed. All repairs were completed last Friday.

The company is now waiting to pass an inspection by the Department of Buildings and then Con Edison can restore gas.

Once the gas service is restored, the co-up board will discuss possible abatement credit for the months without gas.