On Wednesday afternoon, residents of three buildings at the Chestnut Mansion apartment complex reported that they had been without heat or hot water for more than 24 hours after management decided to replace a faulty heating system on what turned out to be the coldest day of the winter so far.

The outage is just the latest in a litany of complaints tenants have lodged against property owner Opus Management, including structural issues with buildings, rodent infestations and a gas leak that left residents without cooking gas for two weeks in November.

Located at 166 West Chestnut Street, Chestnut Mansion consists of 12 buildings with 53 units built around a central historic mansion with sweeping views of the Hudson River. Tenants there pay around $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and up to $3,000 a month for larger units. The complex is owned by Opus Management which describes itself as a “boutique real estate investment and management firm” with properties in New York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida. In Kingston, the firm also owns the Dutch Village apartment complex in Uptown.

Steph De John, who is active with the complex’s tenants’ union, said there have been persistent issues with the boiler. But the system was operating on Tuesday morning around 9 a.m. when hot water began to run out while she was in the shower. She later learned the heat and hot water had been shut off in three buildings with 18 units by a crew brought in to replace the boiler. De John said workers told her they had up to 24 hours to finish the job but predicted it would take closer to 12.

Instead, De John said, crews worked until 2 a.m. before leaving because they did not have the parts to replace corroded pipes. Workers returned Wednesday morning but, as of 2 p.m., heat remained shut off at the impacted buildings with temperatures inside apartments falling into the mid-40s.

“This started happening years ago,” said Tina Chocianowski, who has lived at the complex since 2019. “But they did nothing about it until now on the coldest day of the year.”

Tenants said that they received no advance warning of the shutoff, despite the fact that the work did not appear to be the result of a sudden catastrophic failure of the heating system. But, in an email sent by management to tenants at 9:42 a.m. — after the shutoff — tenants were told that workers were there to deal with an “unforeseen issue.”

“Our team is working diligently to resolve the issue promptly, and we assure you that every effort is being made to restore normal services as soon as possible,” the email reads. “We understand the inconvenience this may cause, especially during this time of the year, and we sincerely apologize for any disruption to your daily routines.”

Opus Management’s Kingston representative, Maria Mercedes, replied “no comment” and hung up when asked about the situation and the complex. An email to Opus Management’s general mailbox with a series of questions about the situation was not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Mayor Steve Noble and city Director of Housing initiatives Bartek Starodaj were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. But city plumbing inspector Josh Tienken, who was checking up on the work Wednesday morning, said officials are aware of issues at the complex. Speaking with De John, Tienken said, “There are multiple issues with the complex and multiple employees of the city working on it. We’re dealing with it.”

The heat outage is the second time in recent months that tenants at the complex have faced a utility shut-off. Between Nov. 16 and Dec. 6 last year, 30 units at the complex were without natural gas service after inspectors found unacceptably high levels of gas in the air — an issue attributed to malfunctioning pipes within the complex. Tenants say that at least one unit in the complex had been condemned after a rat infestation that De John described as “horrific.” De John also pointed to structural damage left behind after a car struck her building, including large cracks running down the façade and a section where the façade appeared to be pulling away from the building. In another section a makeshift wooden brace around a doorway appeared to be propping up parts of the structure.

“[The complex superintendent] was actually told by management not to do that, by the way, but he did it anyway because he was worried someone was going to get killed,” said De John.

Jenna Goldstein, an organizer with the local social justice group For The Many, has been working with tenants at the complex seeking to address some of the ongoing issues there. On Wednesday, Goldstein was advising residents on how to prorate their rent in order to withhold money for the time their heat was out — a tactic she said would hold up in court in the event Opus attempted to evict them for non-payment.

The complex falls under the state Emergency Tenant Protection Act, which places it under the jurisdiction of the state Division of Homes and Community Renewal. But, Goldstein said, the agency’s process for resolving complaints is slow and cumbersome. “DHCR is just too slow to help with the things that are happening here,” said Goldstein.

The ETPA also gives Chestnut Mansion residents enhanced protections against retaliatory evictions similar to the citywide Good Cause Eviction statute that was rescinded last year after its legality was undermined by a series of court decisions. Goldstein said many Chestnut residents remain reluctant to get involved in efforts to hold management accountable for conditions there out of fear of losing their lease and being cast out into Kingston’s brutal rental housing market.

“It just shows how scared [tenants] are,” said. “Even though they have rights, the management is so negligent and so malicious they’re afraid they’re going to end up homeless."