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Crime

13th Aug 2022

Landlord faces £40k fine after tenant puts swimming pool on roof of flats

Kieran Galpin

731 Flushing Ave. in Brooklyn.

He will appear in court in December

A landlord is facing a heft fine after one of his tenants beat the heat by installing a full-size swimming pool on the roof of their high-rise building.

The 480 sq ft pool situated on top of a building in New York was drained on Tuesday after New York Fire department alerted the Department of Buildings to the violation and called for a “structural stability inspection.”

The 4-foot-deep pool, which holds roughly 60 tonnes of water, worried officials who were concerned with the structural safety of the building as the third floor houses a children’s daycare facility.

The owner of the three-story building now faces fines totalling $50,000 (£40,000) for code violations.

“New York. We know. It’s hot. We get it,” New York’s Department of Buildings tweeted. “But please don’t try to build a rooftop swimming pool without first getting permits and hiring professionals to do the job properly.”

The landlord will now appear before the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings in December to address the violations.

Many have taken the opportunity to voice their own issues on the Department of Buildings’ Twitter, with one user demanding: “Maybe make it easier to file and process permits, online, is also a small part of the takeaway here.”

Another said: “Cool. Now do all the building code violations at NYCHA housing and DOE public school buildings. We’ll wait.”

A third added: “Whoops!! Looks like someone forgot to deliver the bribe money or just didn’t pay enough to the city to look the other way.”

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