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For tenants of an eight-unit, rent-controlled apartment building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, they learned on Sunday that there is no place like home.

Resident Anna McCusker set foot back into her apartment for the first time in almost a year. Last July, with no notice at all, city officials came in, condemned the building and kicked her and the other tenants out on the streets

"I came home, my biggest thought was that I didn't want to do my laundry, and then the building inspector says, 'You have to get out right now,'" said McCusker.

The city's Dept of Buildings issued an Immediate Vacate Order because inspectors found 26 open violations on the structure and believed it was unsafe for habitation.

Tenants said the building was just fine before their new landlord, Jamal Alokasheh, took over. They claimed as soon as he bought the building he began illegally digging up the basement and making many other changes that made it both hard and dangerous to live there.

They felt he was making the alterations to force his tenants out.

"It's sadly an occasional situation when landlords create situations to get vacate orders in areas like this, which are the center of a massive influx of people from Manhattan willing to pay much more rents than the current tenants pay," said Martin Needelman, the tenants' attorney.

The tenants reluctantly moved out but they never gave up the fight to return to their homes. They sought legal help and took the landlord to court, demanding that the landlord bring the apartment building up to code so they could return. The case dragged on for the better part of a year.

"The courts are weak, the city is weak and there's not many lawyers to enforce the rights of tenants. They only way to stop it is when tenants organize and fight back," said Needelman.

Eventually, under court order, the landlord did fix some of the violations and the court ruled the tenants could move back in.

As of Sunday, conditions are long way from perfect, as the building lacked water, gas or sewage service, but the tenants were happy to be back home.

"I think it's very safe. I really like that it's a young, hip neighborhood and I just love it here," said McCusker.

The Department of Buildings confirms the chain of events.

NY1 contacted the landlord and his attorney about the allegations, but they did not immediately return the station's phone calls.