399 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231

399 Smith Street is a four-story, six-unit old law tenement building located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and owned by Solomon Steinlauf. Built in 1920, this brick building has experienced several maintenance and safety issues over recent years. The most pressing current concerns, as of April 2024, include two open Class A violations regarding the failure to file annual bedbug reports, which are required under HPD rules.

There are also unresolved safety issues related to the fire escape, with open violations from 2020 requiring the scraping and painting of rust on the east fire escape at all stories, as well as a violation from 2022 noting broken and defective metal treads between the second and third stories. A critical safety violation remains open from 2021 concerning missing carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors in the kitchen of Apartment 1A. The building has a history of heat and hot water issues, with multiple emergency complaints recorded in January 2020, though these were apparently resolved.

In August 2021, there were complaints about unsanitary conditions and wall maintenance issues, resulting in violations related to both problems. The property has also faced some regulatory non-compliance issues, including an active Department of Buildings violation from November 2019 regarding failure to file the annual boiler inspection report for 2017. While there were some fire escape-related violations in 2020-2022 and pest-related issues in 2021, the most concerning current issues are the open bedbug reporting violations and the unresolved safety and maintenance problems in Apartment 1A. Despite these challenges, the building has maintained some basic compliance, with rodent inspections in 2017 and 2018 showing at least partial compliance (with a failed inspection in 2017 for "Other Reasons").