185 Hale Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11208

185 Hale Avenue is a two-family house located in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, built in 1901 and currently owned by Roy Rave. The building has been facing significant regulatory challenges since 2018, particularly regarding unauthorized occupancy and construction in the cellar space.

The Department of Buildings (DOB) initiated investigations in 2018 that led to multiple Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations, with the most serious concerns centering around illegal occupancy of the cellar area, which was originally designated as boiler and storage space per DOB records. Between May and September 2018, five separate violations were issued, with penalties totaling $19,250, primarily against an individual named Reginald Paul, for failing to comply with various commission orders and for occupancy contrary to the building's certificate of occupancy. More recently, in 2020, a professional certification compliance audit resulted in violations related to unauthorized construction work, specifically concerning an unapproved three-piece bathroom installation in the cellar, for which a penalty of $6,250 was imposed and remains active.

The building has undergone several rodent inspections between 2012 and 2015, with mixed results. The property passed the most recent inspection in December 2015 but had failed an initial inspection in October 2015 for unspecified reasons, and previous inspections in 2012 showed rat activity in October before achieving compliance in December of that year. The most pressing current concern is the building's active violations status with penalties due to unauthorized residential uses of the cellar space, which has been the subject of repeated enforcement actions by city authorities.