205 East 4th Street, Manhattan, NY 10009

The five-story Old Law Tenement at 205 East 4th Street in the East Village, owned by Chani Neuhauser, has experienced a range of maintenance and compliance issues since its construction in 1900. Most concerning is a recent heat and hot water emergency in August 2024 affecting the entire building, which HPD was unable to investigate due to access issues. The building has also had recurring smoking violations, with two separate complaints in July 2024, though initial inspections by DOHMH did not provide ascertainable results.

While the building recently completed multiple successful rodent inspections from 2022 through 2025, including a July 2025 inspection that passed, there have been ongoing concerns about unauthorized smoking and food establishment compliance from 2022-2024. The property has documented multiple historical issues with doors/windows, as evidenced by emergency complaints in 2020 and 2019, and various illegal conversion complaints filed between 2018-2023, though most of these investigations did not result in violations. A significant housing maintenance code violation from 2022 related to bedbug reporting was noted, though subsequent filings from 2023-2024 show no infested units.

The building has maintained a good record of passing rodent inspections between 2020 and 2025, with all inspections yielding "Passed" results. Regular bedbug reporting since 2019 shows mostly zero infested units, with only one infested unit reported in 2023 that was subsequently eradicated. Two food establishment complaints from 2022 (regarding no permit/license and pesticide use) were addressed through administrative closure, and violations for door lock repair from 2020 were properly certified as completed.