620 East 188th Street, Bronx, NY 10458

620 East 188th Street is a 24-unit, 4-story New Law Tenement building located in the Belmont neighborhood, built in 1931 and currently owned by Zef Curanovic. The building has experienced recurring heating and hot water system issues between 2022-2023, with multiple emergency complaints filed through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for both apartment-specific and entire building outages. More recently, in 2023-2024, the building has faced smoking/vaping violations in smoke-free areas as documented by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).

The most significant current issues include two open violations from April 2024 regarding fire escape maintenance, and multiple open violations from June 2023 related to safety concerns about fire escape ladders, as well as ongoing concerns about rodent activity as evidenced by recent compliance failures in 2025. The building has a documented history of various maintenance issues, including a pattern of heating system problems in 2022-2023, cooking gas supply issues in April 2023, and a plumbing emergency involving a toilet in 2020. Apartment 4 has been the focus of several violations in 2023, including problems with mold (both in the kitchenette and bathroom), lack of hot water, inadequate gas supply to kitchen fixtures, and pest infestation concerns.

While the building has maintained compliance with the bedbug reporting requirements, showing no documented infestations between 2019-2022, the overall maintenance history suggests periodic challenges with building systems and infrastructure. The property previously received a violation for failure to file an annual boiler inspection report in 2019, which was dismissed in 2020. Regular rodent inspections show a generally successful pattern of passing inspections with occasional noted activity requiring attention, with the most recent inspection in June 2025 resulting in a "Failed for Other Reasons" designation.