197 Meserole Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206

197 Meserole Street is a three-story, five-unit old law tenement building constructed in 1920 in Williamsburg, currently owned by Valentina Espinal. The building has experienced recurring heating system issues, with recent complaints in November 2023 regarding lack of heat and hot water affecting the entire building, and prior similar complaints in 2019 affecting individual apartments. These heating problems have prompted emergency responses from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), though access for inspections was not granted during the most recent complaint.

The building also has several open violations from 2022 that raise safety concerns, including issues with the fire escape, self-closing doors, and egress obstruction. Specifically, there are violations related to a defective fire escape drop ladder, illegal locking devices on doors, non-compliant self-closing doors at various locations, and obstructed fire escape access due to flower pots on the third-story balcony. The building's maintenance history shows both positive and negative aspects.

It has passed multiple rodent inspections between 2018 and 2019, indicating no significant pest issues during those periods. However, there are recent compliance concerns regarding bedbug reporting, with open violations from 2023 and 2024 related to the failure to file annual bedbug reports as required by HPD regulations. The only other health-related complaint on record was from 2023, which was administratively closed. While the building has had multiple HPD interventions for heating issues and other maintenance matters, many complaints were closed with notes that problems had been resolved or that inspectors were unable to gain access to verify conditions.