Illegal Apartment Conversions Lead to $436K Fine
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico recently announced that an aggressive enforcement action was taken against the owners of a Stony Brook home that was illegally converted into numerous rental units before a fire broke out earlier this month. Joined by members of the Town Board, the Brookhaven Fire Marshal’s Office, the Law Department, the Building Department, and local residents, Panico outlined the results of the town’s investigation.
At approximately 4:15 a.m. on July 2, the Setauket Fire Department responded to a fire at 19 Salem Drive, where firefighters quickly extinguished a blaze that originated in a second-floor bathroom and spread into the walls of the home. A subsequent joint investigation conducted by the Brookhaven Fire Marshal’s Office, the Law Department, and the Building Department uncovered extensive illegal alterations that had transformed what was legally permitted as a four-bedroom single-family residence into an illegal ten-bedroom rooming house.
Town inspectors found bedrooms throughout the basement, first floor, second floor, and attic, with many of the rooms individually numbered and secured by key-locked doors. Multiple hot plates, microwaves, compact refrigerators, and rice cookers were discovered throughout the residence, indicating separate living quarters had been created within the home.
According to the town’s investigation, 12 people, most of them Stony Brook University students, were living in the residence at the time of the fire. However, inspectors counted 18 mattresses, suggesting additional occupants or transient use of the property.
The investigation also uncovered numerous hazards, including illegal attic bedrooms, unapproved sleeping areas, missing smoke detectors, dangerous exposed electrical boxes, extensive unpermitted construction, the absence of required emergency means of egress from several bedrooms, and operation without a valid town rental permit. While the official cause of the fire remains undetermined, investigators believe it was likely the result of careless smoking.
Town officials noted that had the fire spread beyond the bathroom, occupants sleeping in the illegally constructed rooms directly above the fire could have faced serious injury or death due to the lack of safe emergency exits. The altered layout also created additional dangers for the volunteer firefighters who responded to the emergency.
Following the investigation, the property owners were each charged with 30 violations of the Brookhaven Town code, including operating an illegal rooming house, operating without a valid rental permit, construction without required permits, illegal alterations without Certificates of Occupancy, missing smoke detectors, and key-locked bedroom doors.
Because one of the defendants had previously been convicted of operating the same property without a valid rental permit, several charges have been enhanced as second offenses. Together, the defendants face a maximum of $436,000 in fines and up to 90 days in jail if convicted. They were scheduled to be arraigned on July 23 in Suffolk County Sixth District Court.
The town is not publicly identifying the defendants at this time. Their identities will be released following their arraignment.
“The town code exists for the safety of our residents,” Panico said. “In this case, there is a glaring lack of desire to have any type of introspection into the home because it was a game; it was a game to bring money from these students into the pockets of the owners that was perpetrated on the people of the Town of Brookhaven, the community of Stony Brook. These kids were being exploited by slumlords.”