Tenant leaders and community members gathered at Brooklyn Housing Court Monday to take a stand against landlords they claim are abusing the system.

The message from tenants and the Right To Counsel NYC Coalition is that tenants being taken to court by their landlords are entitled to free help.

The coalition released its list of the top evictors in Brooklyn. It included apartment buildings in Bushwick, Flatbush, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The Right To Counsel Coalition says evictions have become part of landlords' business model, to raise rents and maximize profits. The organization claims buildings are plagued with structural and elevator issues, which are safety concerns.

Tenants and tenant leaders say they are seeking to send a message to landlords, because they say that not enough tenants know their rights.

Meridian Properties, one of the management companies on the list, tells News 12 that it made eight evictions in 2018 out of 4,000 apartments that it manages. It says the evictions were due to at least two years of back rent, totaling thousands of dollars owed. The company also says six of the evicted families found new homes before they were removed from their apartment.