870 42nd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232

870 42nd Street in Borough Park is a 4-story, 16-unit New Law Tenement building constructed in 1920, currently owned by Ray Chen. The building has experienced persistent heating and hot water system issues, with multiple emergency complaints filed in 2024 and 2025 regarding building-wide outages. Between May 2024 and May 2025, at least eight complaints were registered through 311, many of which were duplicates from multiple tenants, though some resulted in inspections where it was confirmed that services had been restored.

The building faced several security and safety violation issues in late 2024, with the December inspection revealing problems such as non-self-closing doors, defective locks, and concerns about fire escape access due to obstructing flower pots on the 3rd story balcony. These violations were subsequently certified as corrected by January 2025. The property has a history of maintenance challenges, including a 2022 violation for failure to provide access to the boiler for inspection, though this was resolved without penalty.

An illegal conversion complaint was filed in May 2023, but inspectors were unable to gain access for verification. The building has maintained an active record of compliance with bedbug regulations, with no reported infestations in the past three years, and rodent inspections from 2012 to 2016 show irregular results, with some failures for "Other Reasons" but passing inspections more recently. The building's age and recent history of heating system problems suggest ongoing maintenance challenges, but the property has generally been responsive to regulatory inspections and correction notices.