DOB Flags Dewitt Luxury Homes Over Collapsed Roof on Van Sinderen Ave

Dewitt Luxury Homes Inc is facing two Class 1 “immediately hazardous” violations from the city’s Department of Buildings over collapsed roof framing at a pair of buildings it controls next to each other on Van Sinderen Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn.

DOB inspectors cited the company on October 14, 2026 for 801 Van Sinderen Avenue, where the agency’s report describes the roof over the main entrance as missing, with a broken joist that had previously collapsed. The same inspection date produced a second Class 1 citation at 797 Van Sinderen Avenue next door, where DOB found the entrance roof in disrepair with an angled opening and crushed framing. Both violations carry a $2,500 penalty, both remain unpaid, and both are scheduled for an Environmental Control Board hearing on December 23, 2026.

DOB’s separate violations file shows an active construction violation tied to the 801 Van Sinderen address, opened the same day, requesting an engineering report because “structural stability is in question.” The records reviewed do not list any injuries.

Why it matters

A building owner catching one Class 1 violation for collapsed roof framing is a maintenance failure. Catching two on the same day, at two adjacent properties it holds under the same name, is a pattern an inspector can see from the sidewalk. For a company trading on the name Dewitt Luxury Homes, that pattern becomes a watchlist item: the next DOB sweep of this block starts with a company the agency has already flagged twice.

The $2,500 fines are not the cost that matters here. An active ECB violation with a pending hearing follows a BIN, and a contested or unresolved Class 1 can complicate financing, insurance renewal, and any permit application the owner files for either address while the case is open.

The numbers

Both violations were served and issued the same day, October 14, 2026, under section 28-301.1 of the construction code, which covers failure to maintain a building in a code-compliant manner. Neither carries an aggravated-level designation. The hearing officer will take up both cases together on December 23, 2026, roughly nine weeks after the citations were written.

What’s next

With a hearing date set and an engineering report requested, Dewitt Luxury Homes Inc now has two parallel clocks running on the same block: the ECB penalty case and the DOB structural review. A dismissal, a stipulated repair timeline, or an escalation to a more severe violation class are all still open outcomes once the engineering report comes back. The pattern fits a broader run of Brooklyn facade and roof-collapse citations the city has pursued this fall, including a collapse violation DOB issued against a Lafayette Avenue building earlier this month. The American Developer will track the hearing outcome and watch for further citations at either Van Sinderen address.