Squatters die in Elmhurst inferno

From the NY Post:

The Fire Department said it received a 5:37 a.m. call for the blaze Saturday at 90-31 48th Ave. It went to a third-alarm at 6:16 a.m.

A neighbor said the three-story house was vacant and that the men who died were squatters.

There were more than 60 people living in the house in early 2020, according to a complaint received by the city Department of Buildings in January 2020 from someone who wanted to rent a room there and “witnessed people using drugs and the whole house smell of marijuana.”

The DOB had issued a partial vacate order in February 2018 because the basement was illegally converted into six living units.

Update: Another person was found dead in the house

Construction damage forces small business to close on Black Friday

Animal Pantry on Cross Bay Blvd was hit with a vacate order this past Friday due to construction behind the building damaging their foundation.

Great timing! It's called Black Friday because small businesses are generally running "in the red" up until the day after Thanksgiving, when they make a bundle off holiday shoppers, which pushes them "into the black" on their balance sheets.

All to build another cookie cutter piece of crap. For shame.

Illegal demo leads to garage collapse

From PIX11:

The owner, 1771 Weeks LLC, was ordered to “repair or replace” the garage.

Unfortunately, the owner, according to DOB inspectors, “hired contractors to unsafely begin demolishing the … rear garage … without a permit.”

The allegedly illegal work went on for two weeks.

On June 15, the birthday party was planned to take place at backyard picnic tables not far from the garage at 1771 Meeks. That’s when nearby residents heard what one man described as “sounding like a gunshot.”

The garage had collapsed and bricks came raining down on an area close to those picnic tables.

“It could have been fatal,” resident Marcel Sukhlall said, if the collapse had occurred just one hour later, when the party was scheduled to begin.

FDNY and DOB inspectors rushed to the scene. A stop-work order was issued for 1771 Weeks Ave. and vacate notices were put up on three surrounding buildings.

Hey, we can't impede progress!

Drunk driver crashes into house, reveals illegal conversion

From NBC:

Witnesses said the driver, a 29-year-old woman identified by police as Shanna Shaw, got out of the vehicle wearing only her underwear. She seemed disoriented and under the influence.

"She was just screaming, just screaming," said A.J. "No words at all."

Police said the woman tried to leave the scene but was arrested. All of the injured are expected to survive.

But there are even more victims: A.J. and his family may have lost their home, since it's been deemed no longer safe to live in.

"We have to move or vacate the apartment until further notice," he said. "It takes a toll on everybody, but you gotta live through it, I guess."

A.J. and his family are staying with friends for now. The driver, Shaw, has been charged with driving while imparied and with two counts of fleeing the scene of an accident.

Attorney information for Shaw was not immediately clear.

Messages left for the building landlord were not immediately returned. The Department of Buildings said during investigation at the crash scene, they learned the home had been illegally converted and didn't have adequate egress. As a result, a partial vacate order was issued for the first floor and garage.

DOB verifies that Elmhurst death house was illegally subdivided

From the Daily News:

The Queens building where a man was found dead in the attic — a day after the fire was put out — was illegally subdivided, according to the Buildings Department.

There was an apartment illegally created in the basement, and multiple Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units illegally added on the first floor of 40-46 Case St. in Elmhurst, inspectors said.

The Buildings Department has ordered the property owner to board up the vacated fire-damaged building. The owner has also been hit with multiple violations for the illegal conversions.

On Sunday, a city lawmaker who represents the area demanded a full investigation and for stricter penalties for similar illegally converted houses.

"Similar illegal conversions are common practice in Corona and Elmhurst," said Councilman Francisco Moya.

The home in Jackson Heights that caught fire also has a history of being an SRO.

Fire at illegally converted home with 10-year vacate order!

From the NY Post:

Three Queens residents’ lives were saved in an “amazing rescue” by firefighters who pulled them to safety through the window of an illegal attic apartment during a blaze Sunday, fire officials said.

“They would all have been dead,” FDNY Batallion Chief Robert Bohack Jr., said.

Firefighters were called to the scene at 101-51 107th St. in Richmond Hill around 7:45 a.m. for a fire that started on the second floor of what was legally considered a two-story building.

But first responders quickly realized residents were being illegally housed in the attic and would need to be rescued, an FDNY spokesman said.

Smoke eaters battled the flames from inside, by traveling up the interior stairs, and from the rear of the home, where firefighters used a ladder to access the attic through a small window.

Buildings department inspectors determined the two-family home had been illegally converted into a five-family structure, with additional apartments in the cellar of the building, a DOB spokesman said. Officials immediately issued a vacate order due to the heavy damage throughout the building.

When confronted at the scene, a man identified as the building’s owner would not answer questions about the illegal conversion.

Perhaps he's mum because there's been a vacate order on the house for 10 years!

Illegal conversion could lead to a 7-year prison sentence

From CBS 2:

The insatiable demand for affordable housing in New York City at times creates an illegal supply of rentals.

Now, for the second time in five years, a Queens man has been charged with illegally converting a single-family home into a multi-unit dwelling.

On first glance, it’s not clear why the home in Elmhurst would need three satellite TV dishes. A resident insisted there was nothing illegal happening there.

“No illegal conversion,” the man who didn’t wish to be identified told CBS2’s Tony Aiello. When asked if they’d allow a camera crew in for a look, the resident claimed “it’s not a perfect day today.”

It certainly proved to be a bad day for the owners, 53-year-old Segundo Chimbay and his wife, 52-year-old Maria Chimbay. The Queens District Attorney charged them with illegally converting the home on forlay street into five small apartments, including one in the attic and one in the cellar.

Authorities say at one point fifteen people lived there, all of them sharing one kitchen on the first floor. Rents were between $750 and $1,400 a month, according to authorities. The Chimbays also allegedly told renters to ignore the vacate order placed on the front door.

East Harlem building evacuated due to enormous crack

From NBC:

Lara Wilson can see through her wall.

That’s because her upper Manhattan apartment building has a gaping crack -- at least a couple centimeters wide -- up an exterior wall that has splintered up from the second floor to the roof. And the crack is growing -- leading fire officials to hastily evacuate Wilson and nearly 30 other tenants while they assess the stability of the structure.

“Today, we looked out it and you could see out to the street,” she said. “So it’s pretty bad.”

Fire officials said it’s unclear what caused the crack at the building on East 96th Street and Second Avenue -- directly over the new Second Avenue subway’s final stop.

Waste transfer station's wall collapse injures 2

From the Times Ledger:

The Fire Department filed a complaint with the city’s Department of Buildings against Royal Waste Services, a waste management facility in Jamaica, where a wall collapsed on two men Saturday, according to the FDNY.

The victims, age 34 and 40, were both taken to Jamaica Hospital after the incident, which occurred at 187-40 Hollis Ave., according to the NYPD. Both victims are expected to survive.

One patient was in critical condition and the other had a serious injury but was in stable condition, according to the FDNY.

The FDNY requested a structural stability inspection from the Department of Buildings later that day, a spokesman for FDNY said.

Two days later the Buildings Department put a partial vacate order on the facility, according to nyc.gov.

Trump home has illegal conversion inside

From DNA Info:

The city issued a partial vacate order at President Donald Trump’s boyhood home, which has recently been listed on Airbnb, after the owners illegally converted the basement into an apartment, city records show.

The five-bedroom, Tudor-style house, at 85-15 Wareham Place in the affluent Jamaica Estates neighborhood, where Trump lived until he was 4, was sold at an auction in January for $2.14 million. In August, the new owners listed it on Airbnb with a price tag of $725 per night.

But shortly after that, the city received complaints from Community Board 8 and via 311 about the illegal conversion conducted in the basement, officials said.

The basement is not part of the Airbnb listing which advertises the other portions of the house, according to Airbnb.

CB8 District Manager Marie Adam-Ovide said Friday that the board received a number of phone calls and emails with complaints that there are people illegally living in the basement.

“Once we receive complaints, we have to act,” she said.

CB8 then notified the Department of Buildings, which referred the case to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement investigating illegal conversions.

Richmond Hill block has a squatter problem

From PIX11:

Boarded-up homes in Queens surrounded by garbage are being taken over by dangerous squatters.

"It's a real big danger to my family," said Charles Mahadeo, who lives next door to one of the abandoned homes on the corner of Lefferts Boulevard and 95th Avenue in Richmond Hill.

"There have been two deaths in here, it's a dumping ground, it's very smelly and it's not a very good atmosphere at all around here," he said. "I'm very much concerned this place is very bad for my children and very dangerous, especially with the squatters."

Mahadeo told PIX11 Friday the owner of the home died a few years ago and no one has done anything with the house since.

Right across the street sits another abandoned house and there was a woman inside when we showed up.

She shouted, "I'm not a squatter."

The boarded up houses are among many occupied two and three-family homes.

Illegal hotel busted in Little Neck

From the Queens Chronicle:

A house where Airbnb guests stayed on Beechknoll Avenue in Little Neck has been removed from the rental website by the host and the building was hit last month with a vacate order from the Department of Buildings over its usage as a hotel.

The owner of 249-23 Beechknoll Ave., the cellar of which was being used as a living space, could not be reached for comment before deadline.

The building received three Environmental Control Board violations for occupancy contrary to the certificate of occupancy, work without a permit in the basement and failing to provide ingress and egress. They were issued on June 14 along with the vacate order, according to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement.

“The overwhelming majority of hosts in Queens are responsible home sharers who respect their neighbors and take pride in introducing visitors from around the world to their borough,” Airbnb said in an emailed statement to the Chronicle.

The company did not immediately respond when asked when the listing was removed.

Gov. Cuomo signed legislation last year banning advertisements for short-term rentals in “Class A” multiple dwellings. But it did not ban using Airbnb to rent a single-family homes like the one on Beechknoll Avenue or two-family ones.

Rockaway hostel vacated

From DNA Info:

The city shut down a "dangerous" illegal hostel run by a controversial operator who advertised the home as an airy getaway close to the beach — which hosted as many as 22 people at a time without proper exits or fire alarms, officials said.

Drifter Inn, at 427 Beach 69th Street, put up to eight people in a room inside the two-family Victorian home, renting bunk beds out at $35 a night on weekdays and $50 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The hostel was operated by Laura Jones, who has now been permanently banned from Airbnb, a company spokesman said.

In 2014, Jones tried opening the Hostile Hostel — which caused a stir over bungalow names including the “wife beater” and “gang violence.”

It later closed due to controversy surrounding the room themes, which Jones said was just a joke.

She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

On July 13, the Department of Buildings and the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement ordered a full vacate of the new hostel, saying it was illegally converted from a two-family residence to include seven furnished rooms lacking necessary exits, fire alarms or sprinklers.

Illegal conversion vacated in Brooklyn

From Brooklyn Reporter:

A number of people have been displaced after city officials issued an immediate vacate order on an illegally converted home in Dyker Heights on Thursday evening, June 22.

The property – 1317 73rd Street – was one of four sites initially reported by local residents that were visited Thursday evening by the city’s illegal conversions task force which, sources say, were able to gain access to the building and deem its living conditions an “immediately hazardous situation.”

According to a source who was at the scene, the property’s basement “was all chopped up [to create living quarters for its residents] with the exit from the basement in the front of the house sealed off.” In addition, the source said, the property’s driveway was lined with buckets, presumably being used by residents to relieve themselves as the basement had only two bathrooms.

Upon arrival, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings (DOB) told this paper, inspectors observed an illegally constructed apartment in the cellar of the property with its own unpermitted gas and plumbing lines. The agency issued a vacate order “due to a lack of two means of egress, the illegal gas lines and insufficient ventilation in the apartment.”

According to DOB officials, five people were determined to be living in the basement unit of the building, all of whom were offered relocation assistance by the American Red Cross. The apartments on the first or second floor of the building did not need vacating.

Not a basement - an obvious cellar. When is the illegal conversions task force coming to Queens?

Bronx parking garage collapses

From CBS 2:

Dozens of cars were damaged when a parking garage in the Bronx suddenly collapsed on Sunday morning.

Collapsed concrete crushed cars inside a two-story parking garage, with the wheels of one vehicle clearly visible coming down through the roof of 3000 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx.

Firefighters got the call just after 6 a.m. Sunday when part of the second story loaded with cars came crashing down on vehicles below.

One employee was inside at the time, but wasn’t injured.

The Department of Buildings ordered the structure to be vacated and issued the owner a violation for failing to properly maintain the building.

Brooklyn house hole

Just wanted to point out that a construction fence around the side yard is not very effective for a house demolition...

Not sure what happened here; an application for mechanical demo was approved in 2014, yet this is what the building looks like today, vacate order and all. They want to replace it with an 8-unit building.

Residence illegally converted into synagogue

"This building's C of O is for residential use but illegally converted to be synagogue/place of worship. Worse, they now purchased the property next door 150-60 78th road, and performed major renovation work to connect the 2 buildings together, expanding the illegal usage.

Every Sunday, they hand out donated perishable food and vegetables and other types of groceries to people. I have nothing against charity, but they have crowds blocking the entrance of the common drive way and leaves rotting and unwanted food stuffs by the street tree, and stored the empty vegetable cartons outside the 150-60 garage overnight for pick up.

They did try to manage and clean up but these kind of activities does not belong to a residential neighborhood. There are tons of summonses and ECB violations but mostly were ignored and written off." - anonymous

Jamaica Estates house needs some TLC

From the Queens Chronicle:

A boarded-up, derelict house at 84-38 Charlecote Ridge in Jamaica Estates is concerning some in the neighborhood.

“I am so furious about this whole thing,” Community Board 8 Chairwoman Martha Taylor told the Chronicle. “It’s just crazy.”

Windows at the house are fragmented and trash can be found on the ground surrounding it. A vacate order was issued at the site earlier this year due to a lack of hot water, water supply and heat, missing windows and the building being in total disrepair, CB 8 said.

According to Taylor, the vacate order has likely been lifted — a hypothesis drawn from a Dec. 14 email sent from HPD to the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs, and then to CB 8 — although it should not have been.

The email, which was provided to the Chronicle, says, “HPD was able to gain access to the above referenced property today. The building has essential services. For this reason we will not be vacating the building.”

Taylor is doubtful.

“The violations can’t be cured without them going to Buildings, getting a permit and then having master plumbers certify that they’re fixed,” she said. “As far as I know, all they have is electricity ... . They cannot cure those violations without a master plumber.”

Woodside homeowner arrested for attempting to bribe DOB

From QNS:

A Woodside property owner whose two-story building was deemed too hazardous for living was arrested this week for trying to bribe the city into overlooking the vacate order.

Susana Escobar-Cardena, 65, was charged on Dec. 12 and charged with third-degree bribery and second-degree reckless endangerment. Escobar-Cardena, the owner of a two-family home at 62-17 39th Ave., had illegal single room occupancies in the cellar and first and second floors of the building.

In March of this year, according to prosecutors, the Department of Buildings (DOB) issued a vacate order on the property and told the owner that no one was allowed to re-rent or live there. On Dec. 10 an investigator re-inspected the property and found two rooms on the second floor with no emergency exits and one room in the cellar with no emergency exit.

Escobar-Cardena told the investigator that she had nowhere else to go and was told that the American Red Cross could help her find a new home. She proceeded to place $200 in cash into the investigators hand. The investigator told her it was not appropriate and told his colleague who was outside, according to the criminal complaint.

The investigator and his colleague went back into the building to record the conversation with Escobar-Cardena who again tried giving the DOB employees $200.

Real estate agent caught showing illegal conversion

From NY1:

Department of Buildings inspectors bust a real estate agent trying to rent them an illegally converted apartment.

The illegal conversion problem is citywide, but severe in Brooklyn and Queens.

NY1 was the only news outlet there when the sting when down.

An illegal conversion is an alteration of a building to create housing without city approval. Like this apartment, many lack proper exits, have unsafe gas hookups and other safety violations.

Inspectors usually enter if someone gives them access. In this case they were allowed in, and they slapped the property owner with a violation and a vacate order.

If extreme violations are suspected, inspectors can seek a court warrant.

Last year, DOB received more than 19,000 complaints.

More than half of the complaints were in Queens.