Aug 12
2025
Absentee landlord hit with historic fine
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The Elmwood Heights Apartments are for sale as former owner faces record fines. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.
The absentee owner of a North Buffalo apartment complex may soon be hit with the largest fine ever imposed by Buffalo Housing Court.
On July 23, Housing Court Judge Phillip Dabney issued a $1.3 million judgment against Elmwood Heights LLC, the owner of the now-vacant Elmwood Heights Apartments at 597-605 Elmwood Ave., at the corner of Lexington Ave.
The three-story, 49-unit apartment complex, which has been in Housing Court since 2018, was condemned in March 2023 by the city for unsafe living conditions, with residents given less than a month’s notice to vacate. It had been owned by Elmwood Heights LLC since 2006.
That company, along with some others connected to the property, is linked to Moty Schneck, a 51-year-old real estate investor from the Hudson Valley, with a history of bankruptcies, property foreclosures, unpaid taxes, Housing Court fines and defaulted loans.
Schneck’s legal troubles extend beyond Erie County, with suits filed against him in Rockland County as well, where he’s believed to live, according to court filings and public records. Schneck within the past three years has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for himself and two of his companies.
Some are hopeful that the historic fine will force Schneck to be accountable for the neglect of his Ellicott District property.
“For years, residents and local officials have raised concerns about this property, and I’m encouraged that Housing Court has taken significant action with the $1.3 million fine,” Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope said in a statement to Investigative Post.
The building is located in the Ellicott District, which Halton-Pope represents.
“This judgment could serve as a much-needed precedent — sending a clear message that chronic neglect and abuse of property ownership will not be tolerated,” she said.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomOthers aren’t as optimistic that the fine will be effective, both because of Schneck’s bankruptcy and unsuccessful attempts by both city officials and residents to locate him.
“It’s not going to do anything because he’s not going to pay it,” said Heaven Wittmeyer, a former tenant of Elmwood Avenue Apartments.
Wittmeyer, who lived in the apartments “on and off” since the late 1990s, said Schneck changed his phone number when she asked him to return her $1,200 security deposit.
Investigative Post tried contacting Schneck via two phone numbers he listed in his bankruptcy filings, but was unable to reach him. Richard Berger, an attorney for Schneck, did not respond to phone and email interview requests.
The apartment complex was seized by a bank earlier this month and is now for sale with a listing price of $2.5 million.
The apartments could need “between $4 million and $6 million” worth of work to make them habitable again, according to Gregory Straus of 716 Realty Group WNY, which listed the property on Redfin. Still, he’s optimistic that the right buyer can restore the habitability and integrity of the 125-year-old structure. He said that during its first week on the market, about a dozen qualified parties have expressed interest in buying and rehabilitating the apartments.
“It’s a doable project and that’s all I need to know, that somebody’s going to take this and make it a really great piece of their portfolio, and it’s gonna be interesting to see who that person is,” Straus said.
A record fine
The $1.3 million fine is so big that court officials aren’t able to get it on the books just yet.
The issues are on the technical side, as the court adopted a new computer system in “roughly 2014 or 2015” that produced limitations in how judgments can be entered, city inspector Brian Higgins said during a Housing Court appearance for the property. The system won’t accept an entry greater than $52,500.
So Dabney issued a Housing Court fine for $52,500 — $1,500 for each of the 35 violations. He then requested the city to write a proposed civil judgment order for the difference — $1,247,500 — which he agreed to approve once received.
The amount came about as a result of city officials requesting maximum fines per day for each day the property’s code violations went unresolved. Though issuing fines per day has become less common in recent years, Higgins said in court that the city “did it often” under the jurisdiction of former Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak.
“Ultimately, if this fine stands, it could be a turning point — not just for Elmwood Heights, but for how Buffalo handles negligent landlords. This level of enforcement is long overdue, and I commend the City’s legal team for pushing it forward,” Halton-Pope said.
A property with a reputation
Wittmeyer, the former Elmwood Heights Apartments tenant, said Schneck appointed her property manager for a brief period before she contracted COVID-19 and spent months in the hospital. She claimed the condition of the apartments began to decline around four years ago when Schneck contracted with several local agencies to house tenants in rehabilitation programs.
“There were a couple different agencies moving tenants in, and they destroyed that building, bringing drugs in, squatters, you name it,” she said.
Litter in the backyard of the Elmwood Heights Apartments. Photo by Heaven Wittmeyer.
Wittmeyer shared photos of apartments she said tenants had trashed. Several images depict rodents, rooms and the backyard cluttered with trash and drug paraphernalia, a vandalized toilet, interior walls with graffiti, broken windows and a blood-splattered apartment she said she and her ex-fiance cleaned after a man had been stabbed there 25 times.
She said the apartments began experiencing structural deterioration in the winter of 2022 after a December blizzard caused damage to the roof, doors and windows. She said she complained to Schneck and he claimed he didn’t have money for repairs.
“[But] before that storm even hit, that November we had no heat, no hot water for at least six weeks until after the storm. There was a really bad carbon monoxide leak that could have killed everyone,” Wittmeyer said.
She’s also not optimistic that the building can be restored to its former glory due to the damage and neglect it has faced.
“There are so many repairs that need to be done, and not to mention the cockroaches and the bed bugs in the building,” she said. “I know it’s considered a historical building, but tear that down and start from scratch.”
Snow in the Elmwood Heights Apartments after the December 2022 Blizzard. Photos by Heaven Wittmeyer.
Even with its troubled past and current state of disrepair – the exterior remains riddled with graffiti, broken glass and boarded windows – some remain optimistic that it can be sold and renovated.
“It’s been to the bottom. I see this turning the corner and coming out of the valley,” said Straus, of 716 Realty Group WNY.
He said the company has boarded windows, removed “about six dump trucks” worth of trash from the property, changed locks and installed security cameras.
An owner with a checkered history
It’s unclear how, or if, Schneck will be able to pay the fine. He was fined $14,000 in January 2024 by then Housing Court Judge Patrick Carney, an unpaid debt he listed in the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for one of his companies.
Elmwood Heights LLC, for which Schneck is listed as manager, was founded in 2006 and purchased the apartment complex the same year from its previous owner, Donald Hoke, for $2,005,000. Wittmeyer called Hoke an “amazing landlord” and said things went downhill after he sold the apartment to Schneck.
Schneck’s legal troubles in Buffalo appear to have begun in 2015, when his Bapaz LLC was sued in 2015 by M&T Bank for defaulting on a $25,000 business line of credit. Nowak, as Housing Court judge, granted the bank a judgment of $33,186.87.
Elmwood Heights LLC was sued in state Supreme Court in 2022 by 1S REO Opportunity 1 LLC for defaulting on a $1,450,000 mortgage loan. The bank now owns the Elmwood Heights Apartments and is responsible for facilitating its current sale.
Schneck began bankruptcy proceedings for Elmwood Heights LLC in October 2023. A year later, he filed for bankruptcy as an individual. In those filings he said he was in danger of losing the Elmwood Heights Apartments.
“I have a[n] emergency since my property is [in] danger of being taken away[.] Will [do] anything to settle it just no time to do this before I file thank you,” he wrote in his bankruptcy filing.
RSHBY 10565 Inc., a company for which Schneck is listed as an officer, was formed on July 2 and obtained the deed to Elmwood Heights a day later for $0, according to county records. The Albany-based company filed for bankruptcy less than a week later, citing debts of $14,000 in Buffalo City Court fines and $15,600 for professional services from Waves Architecture and Engineering, a Buffalo-based construction company.
The first Housing Court case for Elmwood Heights Apartment under RSHBY 10565 Inc. was opened on July 14, 2025.
In Rockland County, Schneck’s company Fanley Holdings LLC is a defendant in an ongoing lawsuit filed in May by Wilmington Savings Fund Society. The suit claims that the company, Schneck, and an individual named Sara Schneck owed $1,890,000 on mortgages for a property at 7 Fanley Ave. in the Hudson Valley village of Spring Valley. That property has been listed as Schneck’s address in several legal documents.
Fanley Holdings was also sued in May by 817 Management LLC for failure to pay back a $150,000 loan. A judge ordered the company to pay $307,500, a debt that Schneck listed in his personal bankruptcy filing.
