About 30 tenants were joined by attorneys from the Urban Justice Center and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition to announce a lawsuit against the landlord of 2710 Bainbridge Avenue.

Residents in the Fordham building said the landlord ignored numerous requests for major repairs.

At a protest outside of their building today, the residents said that the landlord has refused to fix crumbling walls, moldy tiles, clogged drains and cracked windows.

A fifth-floor tenant said one of his windows was broken by someone coming down the fire escape, and remained unfixed a year-and-a-half later. Other tenants said they have resorted to replacing the windows with plywood to keep out the cold.

They said the lack of repairs has put their lives at risk.

"All of our outlets don't work. You hear rats fighting in the wall. You can hear them," said tenant Peggy Vargas. "I mean, I run out of the apartment sometimes I'm so scared. The doors are not locked. I come in late and I don't know who's going to hit me. I pay $1,150 in rent. "

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development said the landlord has about 200 serious violations filed against him, worth about $350,000 in penalties.

“We found ourselves today not able to wait any longer," said Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera, who joined the tenants at the protest.

"We've been working with organizers from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition to take on Frank Palazzolo, who is one of the worst landlords that New York City has ever seen," said Urban Justice Center's Garrett Wright. "This morning we filed a lawsuit in Bronx Housing Court, seeking to have the court appoint an independent administrator take over the property here and start making the repairs that are badly needed here."

According to the HPD, the building is part of the alternative-enforcement program, which tries to group the worst landlords together and tries to get them to make repairs.

However, tenants say that since the building has been part of the program since 2008, they have not seen any repairs made.

HPD officials said they made $160,000 of emergency repairs, but will not be able to begin repairing or replacing the building's major systems, like the roof, water and sewer systems, until a order goes into effect on April 12.

In addition, HPD says it has taken since March 2009 to get any repairs done because crews were denied access to the property by the landlord more than once. HPD says it had to go court to gain access.

NY1 has reached out to the landlord for comment. The station is awaiting a response.