Landlords In Fatal Fire Racked Up More Than 1,000 Violations Across NYC

By Greg B. Smith, The City

May 11, 2026

Three days before a fatal fire May 4th at 207 Dyckman St. in Inwood, housing inspectors appeared at the six-story walkup and issued a dozen code violations.

One of those was for a non-functioning self-closing apartment entry door that was deemed “immediately hazardous.”

After the blaze was put out, firefighters discovered severe fire damage in eight apartments where entry doors had been left open. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore made a point of noting that units where the doors were closed “had very little impact, no fire.”

The city’s housing code requires property owners to fix “immediately hazardous” violations — such as the self-closing door at Dyckman Street — within 24 hours.

But, according to city records and sworn statements, the building’s owners have a track record of letting dangerous conditions linger.

No paywall here. THE CITY is a free-to-read, independent newsroom covering the stories that help you understand NYC. Sign up to get our headlines in your inbox.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has issued more than a thousand violations over the last few years to the landlords of the Dyckman Street building at properties they own across New York, an investigation by THE CITY has found.

Windows were boarded up after a May 4 fire at 207 Dyckman St. in Manhattan where three people died. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

The problems are so bad that HPD has been forced to file suit 16 times since 2020 alleging a persistent failure to address serious health and safety issues at 10 properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens controlled by co-owners of the Dyckman St. property, Jack Bick, Chaim Schweid and their affiliated real estate companies, records show.

Bick ranks 80th on Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ list of the city’s 100 worst landlords.

“I have heard complaints that they don’t respond,” said a 22-year-old tenant of one of Janjan’s Manhattan buildings. “Like, they take years to, like, fix a problem.”

As of last week those 10 buildings had racked up a total of 1,343 open housing code violations, including 406 listed as “immediately hazardous.”

On April 27, HPD sued Bick, Schweid and their firms, Janjan Realty and SB Dyckman LLC, over serious code violations at 209 Dyckman St. — the building next door to the fire site. That included citations for two fire safety issues: a blocked egress and a missing smoke detector.

As of last week both Dyckman Street buildings had a combined total of 336 open violations, 100 of them “immediately hazardous.”

A ‘Top Priority’ for Mamdani

At the time of the fire, 207 Dyckman St. had been placed in HPD’s “alternate enforcement program,” which targets landlords who accumulate an alarming number of serious violations within a year. Property owners in the AEP program are then subject to random inspections to clean up past outstanding violations. At 207 Dyckman, HPD and Janjan had resolved 85 past citations as of Thursday.

HPD told THE CITY it “will use every tool in its toolbox to ensure tenants are safe and landlords meet their obligations.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani "has been clear that enforcing housing quality is a top priority for this administration, and we will continue to take action against unsafe conditions and bad landlords whenever and wherever they exist,” the agency said in a statement.

The lawsuits HPD has filed against Bick, Schweid and their firms highlight a persistent failure to address serious code violations at specific buildings. Over the last year, HPD had to sue Bick three times over violations at one of his buildings on Bessemund Avenue in Far Rockaway, then another three times over a building he controls a few blocks away on Hartman Lane.

Both locations included violations for non-working self-closing doors.

‘Unsafe Conditions’

At another Bick-owned Far Rockaway building on Bay 30th Street, HPD last month filed suit accusing the landlord of deliberately “neglecting those unsafe conditions as part of an intentional and aggressive campaign to harass and displace rent-stabilized tenants.” They allege at one point a tenant without a lawyer was offered $100 to vacate their apartment.

Buildings at 207 and 209 Dyckman St. in Upper Manhattan. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

Schweid controls four properties sued by HPD over the last few years, including a 49-unit rental building on Ocean Parkway in Kensington, Brooklyn.

In the last two years, housing inspectors have fielded dozens of complaints about unsafe conditions there, and HPD has at times been forced to bill Schweid for repairs city-hired vendors had to perform when the landlord failed to do so.

As of this week the Ocean Parkway building had 91 open violations, 30 of them “immediately hazardous.” Since December the building has been cited five times for non-functioning self-closing doors.

A lawyer for Bick did not return THE CITY’s calls seeking comment, and a message left at a number listed for Janjan Realty was not returned. A lawyer for Schweid did not return a call or an email from THE CITY.

On Thursday, fire department officials cited the Dyckman Street fire at a press conference touting a recent public service announcement they released following an April fire at a building on East 187th Street in The Bronx that resulted in two deaths. Officials said firefighters entering that building found many apartment entry doors had been left wide open.

First Deputy Fire Commissioner Dan Flynn advised New Yorkers to always close their doors and leave them closed when fleeing the scene of a fire.

Open doors create a chimney effect that spreads fire, smoke and flames — a factor that was in play during the May 4 Dyckman Street conflagration that killed three tenants, including People magazine journalist Yolaine Diaz and her mother, Ana Mirtha Lantigua.

“This year we’ve had many fatalities that have resulted from residents opening doors or leaving doors open,” Flynn said. “Closed doors will limit the spread of that fire, limit the spread of toxic gases and smoke.”

Flynn cited two examples in The Bronx where open doors contributed to the rapid spread of fatal fires — a December 2017 blaze on Prospect Avenue that caused 13 deaths, and a January 2022 fire in the Twin Parks building that killed 17.

“If not for an open door, I am confident that nobody would have died in either one of those fires,” he said.

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.