The city's Environmental Control Board issued a fresh batch of construction violations on September 21, and the sharpest one involves a stop-work order that, per DOB records, didn't stop the work.
At 4081 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, DOB cited Kedar Elite Construction for unlawfully continuing work while on notice of a stop-work order. The violation, issued September 21 under BIN 3430122, states that a Class 1 inspection found brickwork at the building's rear exposure exceeding 20 feet in height — work the agency says was barred under a stop-work order issued September 3 that prohibited exterior work at all exposures except scaffold maintenance. The penalty imposed is $10,000, the largest in this batch, with a hearing set for December 2.
A separate cluster of violations landed on one address in Jamaica, Queens. At 154-10 South Conduit Avenue, DOB inspectors returned three Class 1 citations against Royal York Equities Corp in a single sweep, all issued September 21 under BIN 4296614: PVC drainage piping discharging from a sump pump in the basement, contrary to plumbing code; a broken and disconnected dryer exhaust flue pipe; and unapproved material used for the same dryer exhaust duct. Each carries a $2,500 penalty, with hearings scheduled for December 1.
Elsewhere in the batch, per DOB ECB records: a $6,000 penalty against Modern Services Solutions for a sidewalk shed with an unsecured parapet panel at a 16-story residential building in Manhattan (BIN 1032170); a $5,000 penalty at 169-05 Northern Blvd in Queens against L&L Construction Development, where inspectors said materials fell from a supported scaffold onto neighboring properties during removal work, with workers locked out of the site (BIN 4008816); and a $2,500 penalty against R & A Remodeling LLC at a building under BIN 2086571 in the Bronx, where DOB says a 7-story building was substantially completed after plans approved for six stories were changed without approval — the same address also drew a separate access-obstruction violation the same day.
Also cited September 21: Plaza Construction LLC, for a missing sidewalk-shed information panel at a Manhattan site under BIN 3426350; Congregation Tefilo Ledov in Brooklyn, for an unpermitted structure roughly 30 feet long covering a full sidewalk (BIN 3382609); and Mohammad Sarwar in the Bronx, cited under the cranes-and-derricks category for an electric C-hook removed from a suspended scaffold with no notification on file (BIN 3324292).
None of these violations have been resolved. DOB ECB records show all hearings pending, with dates running from November 25 through December 4, and none of the imposed penalties — ranging from $250 to $10,000 — have been paid as of the September 21 filing date.
Separately, DOB's complaint intake logged roughly 100 new construction-related complaints across the five boroughs over the same two days, per DOB Complaints Received records — elevator, plumbing, and illegal-work categories among the most common. A complaint is an unverified allegation, not a finding, and none of the complaints in this batch has been independently confirmed to connect to the violations above.
For contractors: a stop-work order is not a suggestion, and DOB's own numbers say the agency is watching for exactly this — the $10,000 penalty at 4081 Ocean Avenue is double the next-highest fine in this batch. If your site has an open SWO, scaffold maintenance is the only exterior work DOB says it will tolerate; anything else invites a return visit and a bigger number on the summons. Hearings on all violations above are scheduled between November 25 and December 4 at OATH; respondents can review status and contest at the ECB's online portal (a1.nyc.gov/ecb) using the violation numbers cited.