Squatter home on 67th Street to be demolished

A vacant house on 67th Street between 12th and 13th avenues that has been on fire five times in two years will be demolished, according to the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB).

The building’s last fire was a three-alarm blaze on Feb. 20 that killed a 40-year-old woman. FDNY said she was a squatter.

After inspecting the two-story home, the DOB’s Forensic Engineering Unit issued an emergency declaration for the full demolition of the building.

According to the DOB, the building owner did not request a hold on its order and is not planning to hire private contractors to perform the demolition.

Demolition operations will be performed by city contractors and managed by the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development.

State Sen. Steve Chan told this paper about the home’s struggles following the fire.

“Time and again, we see squatters outright bullying small landlords, and in this particular case the premise was set on fire over and over again,” he said. “This homeowner is now stuck with a building that has to be demolished. It’s next to impossible to be a small landlord in NYC. Laws have to be changed. I’ll be working on better laws where these squatters and deadbeat ‘professional tenants’ can’t game the system.”

The date of the demolition hasn’t been set.