A landlord is raising a stink over the city fining him for a foul odor in his Bronx building — which he claims is just a “fart complaint.”
John Crotty, co-owner of the East 147th Street Housing Development Fund Corp., got socked with a $1,000 summons from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for the stink, which an inspector identified as resembling “animal waste.”
“A nuisance condition exists in that a foul odor resembling animal waste was detected at the bottom of [the] stairwell located at [the] lower-level front exterior of the premises,” reads the Sept. 23 violation, issued by health inspector Eric Han at the 21-unit apartment building at 539 East 147th Street.
Minimum penalty: $1,000, a copy of the violation says.
But Crotty is crying foul — telling The Post the only thing that stinks, is the summons.
“This is totally outrageous,” Crotty said, denying there being animal waste in his building.
“It’s a fart complaint,” he added, joking that maybe the health inspector got “crop-dusted.”
Crotty and the building superintendent, Rashad Pryatt, said there’s instances of getting hit with a $50 ticket from the city Department of Sanitation for a violation regarding a defective trash container or issues with garbage pick-up. They then rectify the problem to curb odors and prevent rat infestations.
But a $1,000 fine from the health department over a mysterious foul smell is unprecedented — and noxious, they said.
Crotty will fight the summons before the city Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings on Oct. 28, he said.
Pryatt, the building super, also denied there was animal poop on the premises.
“No, there was no animal waste. These people are crazy,” he said.
He provided The Post with a picture of the building and sidewalk when he cleaned up the garbage on Sept. 23, the date of alleged poop odors.
The building complex is in a dense and heavily trafficked area, with Public School 277 located next door.
“It’s not me. It’s this area. This neighborhood. Especially with the smell,” Pryatt said.
“I don’t know what else to do.”
A longtime tenant said they had smelled something foul for a few days, but didn’t think much of it.
“It did smell like s–t,” the dweller told The Post on Monday. “But it only lasted a couple days.
“It could’ve just been from the garbage. A lot of people in the building have pets. So it could’ve just been like a build up in the garbage,” the resident added.
“I don’t smell it now,” they said. “It’s not not like I saw s–t on the ground. But it did smell like that for a few days.”
Section 7 of the city health code spells out a $1,000 fine for “failing to abate or remediate” a nuisance, such as a foul odor.
A DOH spokesman defended the fine saying, “The Health Department promotes livable neighborhoods and residences by taking action when problematic conditions are identified.”
The rep also said the violation indicates that there indeed was “animal waste” on the premises.
The department did not immediately have data on how many such odor violations it had issued to landlords.
The mayor’s management reports that overall, the DOH issued 48,298 summonses for the 2023-2024 fiscal year that ended June 30 and nearly 75% of the violations were upheld.
The health department regularly inspects the sanitary conditions of restaurants that sell food to the public, but not apartment buildings.
It’s likely that a tenant or someone else filed a 311 complaint, notifying the department.
Pryatt, who resides in the building, feels he’s being targeted, claiming that he has talked to neighbors, who have not received any tickets.
“I’m definitely getting bullied for sure,” the super said. “It’s unfair.”
