New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams released his annual “Worst Landlord List” Wednesday.

Williams said the landlords on the list own buildings that are in disrepair and that each property owner “puts profit over people,” which is making tenants suffer in their own homes.

Tenants and other advocates rallied in Flatbush outside 80 Woodruff Avenue - one of the worst landlord's properties – to call for better ways to protect tenants and take on bad landlords.

“This list spotlights and shames the more egregiously negligent property owners in the city,” said Williams. “The worst landlords are determined by the number of widespread, persistent dangerous housing violations in the buildings over the past year.”

Williams said this year’s list is making history because the top two landlords, Margaret Brunn and Donald Hastings, had nearly 9,000 violations for more than 60 buildings - the most violations in the list’s seven-year history.

Williams said Brunn and Hastings represent A&E Real Estate, which settled a lawsuit with the city last week to repair 14 A&E-owned buildings across the city, but 80 Woodruff Ave. is not one of them.

Tenants in that complex showed News 12 their apartments, where they said they had mold, broken light fixtures, leaking ceilings and a rodent infestation.

“Since acquisition, we have invested over $800 million across our portfolio to improve the quality of our housing, meaning that every single one of our buildings is in better shape today than it was when we assumed management. That significant investment makes a real difference for our residents, and has resulted in replaced boilers, modernized elevators, fortified security, and the clearance of 35,000 violations.

“To label over $800 million in repairs as “neglect” is misleading and unrealistic, even as we recognize there is much more work to be done. It has been our mission to work with the City to improve every building we manage and address long-standing issues at properties that have been neglected for too long. That will not change.”

“While on the watch list for worst landlords, my company is actually hired under a court order receivership for properties that are in foreclosure. We do not own these properties. My company steps in because the owner has neglected the management and services to these properties. My company was able to get 6 properties out of AEP last year and we clear roughly 500 violatons per mont portfolio wide. We quiclky address all heat and hot water issues and all life saftey issues. You can talk to any of our tenants and they will tell you how responsibe my team is. You can contract various inspectors at AEP and they will tell you how responsive we are to all building. I meet with them pretty much on a monthly basis. It is unfortuneate that we are stepping into a problem. Please recognise that we are the solution to the problem not the creater.”