Assemblyman Colton (D – Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Dyker Heights) thinks that the NYC Department of Buildings is hurting small business owners and homeowners with their incompetence.

“I believe that a homeowner has been harassed by the NYC DOB for no apparent reason. Since 2018 he has received Class 1 violation for construction. Homeowner had to appear at an ECB hearing numerous times for the same reason, because a NYC DOB inspector keeps coming back and keeps reissuing the same violations even though an ECB administrative judge has dismissed them saying that inspectors’ violations are not credible. Furthermore, the homeowner had to hire an engineer in order to prove that there is nothing wrong with their wall and their house is in stable condition. After the ECB hearing where all the violations were dismissed, the homeowner received a notice of violations from the buildings department where they imposed $1,500 dollars in civil penalties. This is disgusting and outrageous,” Colton stated.

“Few days ago, I received an e-mail from a small business owner who is in dire need of help due to DOB harassment. He is stating that he had received a Class 1 violation for Facade Disrepair in September of 2019, alongside a group of building owners, when a complaint was filed for a neighboring building. The business owner is stating that the facade did not suffer from it. It is leaning and it’s been leaning for a number of years and hasn't moved since ownership of the building for about 30 years. The business owner had balusters inspected by a contractor and it was deemed solid, and where he is in process of curing the problem. He had filed for the permit and when work is nearly complete has received another summons from the DOB, which he is stating is backdated to 12/3/2019 for a failure to maintain facade Class 2 violation for $1,500 dollars, even though they aware that the work is in progress and almost complete. It seems that DOB inspectors are incompetent and harassing citizens’, which is very disturbing,” Colton continues.

“First business owners got swamped with the violations for having oversize signage over their stores, then homeowners received notices of violations regarding retaining walls. which is still not rescinded almost three month later, now the two owners that have been harassed by the DOB and who knows how many more that we didn’t know about. It is raising a great concern about the NYC DOB Commissioner. It's either she doesn’t know what is going on within the Department or everything is done without her knowledge, which I have a hard time to believe because every notice is signed by the Commissioner Melanie E La Rocca. Maybe it’s time for a change,” Colton added.