The lights are finally back on for two tenants of an Oliver Street apartment, but dark times will likely continue since their landlord collected the rent and abruptly ordered them out.
When the lights went off the morning of June 15, the two tenants had just paid for June, and National Grid — which contracts solely with the landlord because utilities are included in the rent — wanted more than $700 to turn it back on.
Contact with the building’s owner, Vasiliy Ukharkin, was futile, tenants say.
“(He) would hang up on us,” said Chris O’Lay, whose girlfriend Phyllis Richards has rented a ground floor apartment in the building at 970 Oliver St. for the last 20 years. “He actually called when I had the police over. The officer grabbed the phone from Phyllis and told him what’s going on and he said he’d take care of everything — and nothing was done.”
Ukharkin ignored tenants’ pleas — when he decided to even answer their calls. The number listed for him in the phone book has been disconnected. The News was unable to reach him for comment.
Neighbor Tony Jacob, whose two young children went without their favorite shows — “Sesame Street” and “The Price is Right” — for a week said his fiancé had spoken to the landlord the day the place went dark.
“He was laughing. ... He said ‘if you don’t like it, move.’ “
In the end, Richards, O’Lay and Jacob went without power for a week after that, but for Richards, who relies on a machine to ensure she keeps breathing at night, the flap could have been fatal.
She uses a positive pressure breathing machine at night. Without it, she could stop breathing.
Richards has been using the machine for two years, and said just two weeks ago the air pressure was adjusted to a higher setting on the recommendation of her doctor.
“The more the days went by, the more I could tell from not using it,” Richards said. “And then by Friday I was so sick I couldn’t go to work.”
Bill Paton of Complete Home Care on Broad Street, the company that works with Richards regarding her air machine, worked tirelessly in haggling with National Grid alongside Mayor’s Assistant Jeff Mis and Building Inspector Cosimo Capozzi — who also visited the house — among others.
“National Grid was just over the top,” Paton, also the city’s Republican chairman, said. “They wanted an $800 deposit. We had to explain to them that it was an emergency situation. ... I had called National Grid and was told it would be turned on that night. (O’Lay) called me two days later to tell me it still wasn’t on and that’s when we came over.”
He visited the home around 9:30 p.m. to check on Richards.
“Oh my God, what am I going to do?” Richards, who works at Women and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, recalled was her first reaction.
The electricity was restored six days later without incident, though O’Lay said he almost called 911 on more than one occasion when Richards exhibited signs of her sleep apnea.
Incidentally, it was O’Lay’s birthday when the lights finally came back on. There was no shortage of candles for the cake, since those along with emergency coolers, flashlights and more had to be purchased in the week they were without power. Even the coolers, still stacked in the couple’s kitchen days later, weren’t enough to save about $100 worth of food from spoiling.
O’Lay said he was flabbergasted that no prior notice had been given of eviction, or the fate of his utilities, though he added the power company at one point claimed Ukharkin owed them roughly $3,000, though that couldn’t be verified Tuesday.
Ukharkin allegedly said it was the power company that turned off the juice, and even promised to give back the rent checks he had just collected while also insisting that both residents of the half-vacant, four-unit building leave immediately.
“He collected the rent check on Sunday, and then he went and cashed the check and called National Grid and shut it off,” O’Lay said. “For what he did to us, it was a week of hell.”
Mayor’s Administrative Assistant Jeff Mis confirmed it was Ukharkin who ordered the power shut off around the same time he told everybody to leave. Tenants have not left, however, and Mis said police are looking for the man.
“Capozzi came to me and asked if the mayor’s office had anybody they deal with from National Grid because he’d been trying to get this turned on for them. It was at the end of the day Friday, they hooked me up with a Tim Dzimian. He was working later in the day, I was lucky to get to him, so he looked into the situation ... we come to find out that it was just a request by (the landlord) to turn the electric off.”
In the end, he waived the deposit, but the bill is now in Richards’ name.
“I got a call from a Miguel Santos from National Grid, he’s a consumer advocate for National Grid and he just wanted us to know that even though she put her name on it, they can form a tenant’s association and subtract that from any rent in the future,” Mis said.
O’Lay repeatedly thanked city officials, Paton, and amazingly even National Grid for finally rectifying the situation a week after Paton said he was assured it would be.
It’s Ukharkin’s behavior he can’t believe.
“I can’t believe this guy would do something like this. I know they’re trying to track him down. At least we got the electricity turned back on,” O’Lay said.
Richards was comforted Tuesday evening by the fact her rent for this month has been paid, but she, O’Lay and Jacob have no idea if they’ll be moving or staying.
“I don’t know after that,” Richards said. “It’s bad enough you have to live paycheck to paycheck and then have this happen.”
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