In 2010, the defendants in my lawsuit against the co-op (I am the sole minority shareholder), renovated the apartment directly above mine.
In doing so, they committed several building code violations, for two of which they were cited and fined by the Department of Buildings. They never remedied the violations and to date have not paid the fines — $8,000 and $4,000.
In deposing the defendants, we brought up the demolition of walls and ceilings in that apartment. The building is more than 160 years old. Ergo, in many of the layers of paint covering those walls and ceiling there was without question lead-based paint.
The man they hired to do the work tossed out of the window chunks of sheet rock and plaster he had removed. They landed on the sidewalk. (Is it to his credit, so to speak, that he looked out of the window before dumping the detritus, thus avoiding killing a pedestrian or two? You can decide that one.)
The defendants did not follow the specific rules the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development developed for work performed in apartments where lead-based paint could be a factor. They did not hire a firm certified to remove lead-based paint.
This short law firm article I found today reminded me that lead-based paint shards and dust were then and still are falling freely in this building.
Take a good read if you live in an old building in New York City and, especially, if you own a co-op or condo: Does Your Home Have Lead Paint? | Barasch McGarry Salzman & Penson PC – JDSupra.