Zahid Zaman Cited $10K for Defying Stop-Work Order in Brooklyn

A Brooklyn property owner kept building a porch addition after the city ordered the work stopped, and now owes a $10,000 penalty he has not paid.

The Department of Buildings cited Zahid Zaman on October 13 for continuing construction at 905 Newkirk Avenue in Midwood while a stop-work order was active, according to Environmental Control Board violation 39207638K. Inspectors found a two-story porch addition underway: new floor joists and a foundation footing for decking on the first floor, and a second-floor level with no handrails or safeguards in place. City records list Zaman as the owner of the lot. He is cited for the violation; the case has not gone to a hearing and no determination of guilt has been made.

Why it matters

Working through a stop-work order is one of the more direct tests the city has for whether an owner intends to comply with its enforcement at all. The order itself typically follows an unsafe or unpermitted condition; continuing anyway turns a single infraction into a second, separately penalized one. For a small two-family building like this one, built in 1901 and sitting on a 2,950-square-foot lot zoned R5, the dollar amount is modest next to a commercial project. But the posture is the same one regulators watch for everywhere: does a stop-work order actually stop the work.

The numbers

The ECB logged the violation as a Class 1, its most serious severity tier, under section 28-207.2.2 of the construction code for unlawfully continuing work under a stop-work notice. The penalty imposed is $10,000, against which Zaman has paid nothing, leaving the full balance due. A hearing is scheduled for December 23, 2026, and the case status is listed as pending. Nothing in the record yet sets a final penalty or finding.

What’s next

The case moves to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings docket for that December date, where Zaman can contest the violation or the city can seek to enforce the stop-work order through further penalties. The Department of Buildings has not indicated whether a new stop-work order remains active at the address. It is the latest in a run of Brooklyn stop-work defiance cases carrying five-figure penalties against individual owners rather than corporate entities, following a similar $10,000 citation at 1805 Avenue T. More: 1805 Avenue T owner cited $10K for working through a stop-work order. For the broader pattern of enforcement activity in the borough, see the New York market hub.