18-72 Menahan Street, Queens, NY 11385

The three-story, six-unit Old Law Tenement building at 18-72 Menahan Street in Ridgewood, built in 1930 and currently owned by Berl Schlesinger, has experienced several concerning maintenance issues over the past five years. Most notably, there have been significant rodent-related problems, with the most recent inspections in September and October 2024 both showing "Rat Activity," and multiple previous inspections between 2020 and 2021 noting similar findings.

The building's maintenance history reveals recurring issues with unsanitary conditions and water-related problems, including complaints about heavy water flow and mold in September 2021. Several emergency violations were issued in 2021 regarding its maintenance of safety equipment and record-keeping, including smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector, and gas leak procedures requirements. More recently, from 2023 to 2024, the building has accumulated six active Department of Buildings violations for failure to file the required annual External Low-Pressure System inspections, covering the years 2018 through 2023, with the most recent violation issued in September 2024.

While the building's bedbug reporting from 2021-2025 shows no recorded infestations during each reporting period, the persistent rodent activity and multiple compliance issues suggest ongoing maintenance challenges. The building has also had difficulties with access during boiler inspection attempts in 2021, though these complaints were ultimately closed. Despite these problems, the building has passed most inspections when violations were formally issued, indicating some level of responsiveness to regulatory requirements, though the pattern of regular violations suggests systematic oversight challenges.