197 Chestnut Street, Brooklyn, NY 11208

197 Chestnut Street is a six-unit, three-story New Law Tenement building constructed in 1915 in the Cypress Hills neighborhood, currently owned by Zannis Angelidakis. The building has experienced recurring maintenance issues, with the most recent cluster of complaints in May 2025 documenting problems with water leaks, door issues, and ceiling and wall surface conditions, all of which resulted in housing violations. These recent complaints followed a pattern established in February 2019, when similar issues were recorded involving water leaks and deficiencies in paint/plaster conditions on ceilings and walls.

The building's maintenance history reveals persistent water-related problems, with a significant heavy flow leak recorded in 2025 and multiple water damage complaints in 2019, including a slow leak and wall damage. The building has also faced various code violations and safety concerns over the years. In 2019, multiple violations were documented in Apartment 2S, including water leaks in the bathroom, missing carbon monoxide detectors, and defective plastered surfaces requiring repair. In 2020, violations were noted regarding door self-closing mechanisms and an unsealed dumbwaiter in the public hall.

More recently, in 2022, there was a violation regarding bedbug reporting compliance, though subsequent filings from 2023-2024 show no evidence of infestations. The building passed a rodent inspection in March 2012, and while there was a complaint about unpermitted work in November 2022, no violations were found upon inspection. Despite these various issues, the majority of historical violations have been addressed and closed, with the building maintaining regular bedbug reporting compliance showing zero cases since 2019. The most pressing current concerns appear to be the recently documented water-related issues and surface condition violations from 2025.