Three days earlier than a deadly fireplace Might 4th at 207 Dyckman St. in Inwood, housing inspectors appeared on the six-story walkup and issued a dozen code violations.
A type of was for a non-functioning self-closing house entry door that was deemed “instantly hazardous.”
After the blaze was put out, firefighters found extreme fireplace injury in eight flats the place entry doorways had been left open. Fireplace Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore made a degree of noting that models the place the doorways have been closed “had little or no affect, no fireplace.”
The town’s housing code requires property homeowners to repair “instantly hazardous” violations — such because the self-closing door at Dyckman Avenue — inside 24 hours.
However, based on metropolis data and sworn statements, the constructing’s homeowners have a observe report of letting harmful situations linger.
The Division of Housing Preservation and Growth has issued greater than a thousand violations over the previous couple of years to the landlords of the Dyckman Avenue constructing at properties they personal throughout New York, an investigation by THE CITY has discovered.
The issues are so dangerous that HPD has been compelled to file swimsuit 16 instances since 2020 alleging a persistent failure to deal with critical well being and issues of safety at 10 properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens managed by co-owners of the Dyckman St. property, Jack Bick, Chaim Schweid and their affiliated actual property firms, data present.
Bick ranks eightieth on Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ listing of town’s 100 worst landlords.
“I’ve heard complaints that they don’t reply,” stated a 22-year-old tenant of considered one of Janjan’s Manhattan buildings. “Like, they take years to, like, repair an issue.”
As of final week these 10 buildings had racked up a complete of 1,343 open housing code violations, together with 406 listed as “instantly hazardous.”
On April 27, HPD sued Bick, Schweid and their companies Janjan Realty and SB Dyckman LLC over critical code violations at 209 Dyckman St. — the constructing subsequent door to the hearth web site. That included citations for 2 fireplace issues of safety: a blocked egress and a lacking smoke detector.
As of final week each Dyckman Avenue buildings had a mixed complete of 336 open violations, 100 of them “instantly hazardous.”
A ‘High Precedence’ for Mamdani
On the time of the hearth, 207 Dyckman St. had been positioned in HPD’s “alternate enforcement program,” which targets landlords who accumulate an alarming variety of critical violations inside a 12 months. Property homeowners within the AEP program are then topic to random inspections to wash up previous excellent violations. At 207 Dyckman, HPD and Janjan had resolved 85 previous citations as of Thursday.
HPD advised THE CITY it “will use each software in its toolbox to make sure tenants are protected and landlords meet their obligations.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani “has been clear that imposing housing high quality is a high precedence for this administration, and we’ll proceed to take motion in opposition to unsafe situations and dangerous landlords at any time when and wherever they exist,” the company stated in a press release.
The lawsuits HPD has filed in opposition to Bick, Schweid and their companies spotlight a persistent failure to deal with critical code violations at particular buildings. Over the past 12 months, HPD needed to sue Bick thrice over violations at considered one of his buildings on Bessemund Avenue in Far Rockaway, then one other thrice over a constructing he controls just a few blocks away on Hartman Lane.
Each places included violations for non-working self-closing doorways.
‘Unsafe Circumstances’
At one other Bick-owned Far Rockaway constructing on Bay thirtieth Avenue, HPD final month filed swimsuit accusing the owner of intentionally “neglecting these unsafe situations as a part of an intentional and aggressive marketing campaign to harass and displace lease stabilized tenants.” They allege at one level a tenant and not using a lawyer was provided $100 to vacate their house.
Schweid controls 4 properties sued by HPD over the previous couple of years, together with a 49-unit rental constructing on Ocean Parkway in Kensington, Brooklyn.
Within the final two years housing inspectors have fielded dozens of complaints about unsafe situations there, and HPD has at instances been compelled to invoice Schweid for repairs city-hired distributors needed to carry out when the owner failed to take action.
As of this week the Ocean Parkway constructing had 91 open violations, 30 of them “instantly hazardous.” Since December the constructing has been cited 5 instances for non-functioning self-closing doorways.
A lawyer for Bick didn’t return THE CITY’s calls searching for remark, and a message left at a quantity listed for Janjan Realty was not returned. A lawyer for Schweid didn’t return a name or an electronic mail from THE CITY.
On Thursday, fireplace division officers cited the Dyckman Avenue fireplace at a press convention touting a current public service announcement they launched following an April fireplace at a constructing on East 187th Avenue in The Bronx that resulted in two deaths. Officers stated firefighters coming into that constructing discovered many house entry doorways had been left vast open.
First Deputy Fireplace Commissioner Dan Flynn suggested New Yorkers to all the time shut their doorways and depart them closed when fleeing the scene of a fireplace.
Open doorways create a chimney impact that spreads fireplace, smoke and flames — an element that was in play throughout the Might 4 Dyckman Avenue conflagration that killed three tenants, together with Individuals journal journalist Yolaine Diaz and her mom, Ana Mirtha Lantigua.
“This 12 months we’ve had many fatalities which have resulted from residents opening doorways or leaving doorways open,” Flynn stated. “Closed doorways will restrict the unfold of that fireside, restrict the unfold of poisonous gases and smoke.”
Flynn cited two examples in The Bronx the place open doorways contributed to the fast unfold of deadly fires — a December 2017 blaze on Prospect Avenue that triggered 13 deaths, and a January 2022 fireplace within the Twin Parks constructing that killed 17.
“If not for an open door, I’m assured that no one would have died in both a kind of fires,” he stated.
Contributing: Lilly Sabella
