One Means of Egress for Apartments Sufficient

DOB issued a violation notice to landlord for failing to provide required egress from a three-story building. The second- and third-floor apartments had only one means of egress. Landlord argued that the building was code-compliant when built in 1915, and no alterations had been made since then. The ALJ ruled against landlord and fined him $1,600. Landlord appealed and won. DOB cited no building code requirement for second exits from the building's apartments and presented no agency records showing that alterations were ever made that would cause any later building code to apply.

Bossio: ECB App. No. 1000195 (8/19/10) [3-pg. doc.]