953 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11221

The 4-story, 8-unit residential building at 953 Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, owned by Howard Friedman, was constructed in 1931 and is classified as an Old Law Tenement. The property has experienced recurring maintenance issues over the years, with the most recent significant concerns including an active Department of Buildings violation from September 2024 regarding failure to file the 2023 external low-pressure inspection, and a Housing Maintenance Code violation in 2022 for not submitting the annual bedbug report.

However, the building has maintained a clean record in terms of bedbug infestations, with all annual reports from 2021 to 2024 showing zero infested or eradicated units. The building has undergone multiple inspections since 2007, revealing various maintenance issues, particularly in Apartment 1B, which experienced multiple violations in 2009 including water leaks, non-self-closing doors, inoperable smoke detectors, and the presence of vermin.

While many of these violations were certified as closed by 2021, there were earlier violations regarding entrance lighting (2014) and bathroom plumbing (2007) in other apartments. The property has shown consistent rodent management compliance in recent years, with all inspections in 2023-2025 passing, though there were two instances of rat activity recorded in early 2022. The historical pattern shows improvement in maintenance response times, with most recent violations being promptly addressed, though the current active violation regarding the external low-pressure inspection remains outstanding as of July 2025.