East Hampton Cracks Down on 'Dangerously Overcrowded' Montauk Share House: Town Supervisor

EAST HAMPTON, NY — East Hampton Town cracked down on a "dangerously overcrowded" share house in Montauk Saturday morning, police said.

According to a release from the office of East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, East Hampton Town code enforcement officers, with the assistance of the East Hampton Town Police Department, building inspectors, and fire marshals, executed a search warrant at 13 Beech Hollow Court in Montauk Saturday just after 6 a.m.

Upon entering the premises, the town’s public safety staff found 18 people were occupying the premises as an illegal share house, the release said.

"A months' long investigation of the premises found that tenant, Alina Gersham, who was present at the time of the search warrant execution, was renting out rooms, parts of rooms, the illegally converted basement and even the pool house of the property to 17 occupants", for as much as $1,800 dollars for a weekend per room, the release said.

The house, according to town records, has a certificate of occupancy for only three bedrooms.

During the course of the search warrant, investigators found that the basement and pool house had been converted to provide a total of nine bedrooms, the additional six bedrooms having been added illegally, officials said.

"Furthermore, the basement bedrooms were dangerously arranged as they did not have required egress windows to provide for escape in the event of a fire or other emergency and lacked smoke detectors," the release said.

In addition, the investigation revealed that the pool house at the premises had been illegally converted to a bedroom and was being occupied by two occupants, the release said.

The illegal basement bedrooms were also occupied by numerous others, bringing the total number of occupants to 18, officials said.

Dozens of town code violations were uncovered, including violations of the town's rental registry, which requires that the landlord notify the town building department when the number of tenants change and when new rental periods begin and end, the town's release said.

Other charges included selling of shares, no smoke detectors, building without a permit, no certificate of occupancy, improper egress for bedrooms in the basement, no building permit, conversion of the house from single to multi-family use, and various other building code violations with respect to the pool house and basement, authorities said.

Investigation into the property and the charged defendants continues, officials said.

In addition to charging the 18 occupants of the premises, the property owner, Thomas Mahal, was located shortly after the execution of the search warrant and served with an appearance ticket at his Montauk residence, the release said.

All defendants are scheduled to appear in East Hampton Justice Court on September 26, the release said.

“As we start this busy holiday weekend, all of our public safety staff, especially the code enforcement department who lead this investigation, deserve commendation for all their hard work and vigilance in protecting our community,” Cantwell said. “Our town will not tolerate violations of our town code, especially those sections designed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our single-family neighborhoods and community at large."

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