(CNN) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is launching an investigation to determine if White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's family real estate company harassed tenants at a Brooklyn waterfront property so that they would leave their rent-stabilized apartments, officials said on Monday.

The announcement by the Democratic governor comes after tenants at the Austin Nichols House on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg filed a lawsuit and said the company started major construction that released dangerous toxins in the air. They charge that the building was unlivable for tenants, with excessive noise and vermin running rampant, officials said.

"Governor Cuomo has zero tolerance for tenant abuse of any kind and we will aggressively take on landlords who try to intimidate people out of their homes," said New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas.

Twenty current and former tenants of the property filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $10 million in punitive damages plus whatever a jury decides for compensatory damages.

"To circumvent New York City rent regulation laws it appears Kushner Companies commenced a deliberate campaign to systemically harass tenants out of their apartments using illegal and hazardous construction practices," said Aaron Carr, head of the nonprofit watchdog Housing Rights Initiative that was separately investigating the matter.

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