Scaffolding hugs the façade, permits from the Department of Buildings plaster the glass front door and windows are covered in plastic.

But there are actually six tenants living at 315 W. 103rd St. Their home has become a permanent construction site because the landlord apparently falsified a building permit.

Two years ago, Jacob Avid of Dan-Bran Realty LLC bought the building and applied for permits to build a two-story rooftop and rear-yard addition. The permits stated that the eight-unit building was vacant, but it was actually occupied.

Mark Danna, a 30-year resident of 315 W. 103rd St., has lived in a stalled construction site for nearly five months. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Unlike work on an empty building, construction on an occupied structure comes with a bevy of regulations. In fact, Avid’s permit application, approved by the city on Jan. 5, 2009, acknowledges that the building’s structural stability will be affected by the proposed work.

One resident took a buyout from Avid, but others—a mix of rent-stabilized and controlled tenants—rebuffed offers. Mark Danna, a crossword puzzle writer who works from home, rejected a “low-ball” offer as nowhere near the six-figures he wanted.

Danna is one of two tenants left in the building whose apartment faces the rear yard. The addition looks like a steel patio with a roof, and it is only accessible through his living room window. Danna believes the idea was to create a bigger apartment that would likely be unaffordable for a renter like him. Now, this addition envelops his windows that used to look out onto the yard.

“You’re not living in your castle, you’re in the dungeon,” said Danna, a 30-year resident. “My light and air was taken away from me.”

The Department of Buildings revoked the permits July 8, when an audit stemming from numerous tenant complaints determined that the building was not vacant. Previous complaints had been dismissed by inspectors who felt there were no violations, according to the department’s Buildings Information System.

A receptionist at Avid’s office at Kore Properties Group said that Avid did not want to comment. Avid, through Kore Properties Group, is known to rent out units in his buildings to tourists. His apartments are listed on numerous hotel websites, as reported in West Side Spirit.

Since the city pulled Avid’s permits, the construction has stalled. This is a relief for tenants, but the damage has been done. Hot water is spotty in Danna’s apartment and there are signs of water leakage in other units. Tenants can call 311 to lodge a complaint and get the Department of Buildings to investigate, but redress appears to be up to Avid.

Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, whose office pressed the city to pull the permits, said that more and more landlords are lying on applications. O’Donnell wants a policy change that will create penalties for such actions.

“If they file a fraudulent application, there has to be some cost to the building owner,” O’Donnell said. “Filing a false instrument is a crime, okay? The truth is this isn’t a little bit fraud. This is a huge fraud.”

As for Danna, he’d like the landlord to take down the additions that have disrupted tenants’ homes. But the only way Avid can get his permits back and continue construction—or take down what has been built—is if he reapplies for them and acknowledges that there are tenants living in the building. He would then have to submit a tenant protection plan, which was waived the first time. How long this will all take is difficult to estimate. Anything from mistakes on the application to the volume of applications the department receives can delay permits.

“Why should he be rewarded,” Danna said, “when he did it illegally and upset our lives?”

“The issue is to try and come up with some policy that’s good for the restaurant and the neighborhood,” said Council Member Gale Brewer. “They are taking up public space. So, if you disappear as a restaurant, so should the enclosed café.”

The Department of Buildings is investigating illegal advertising on the enclosed sidewalk café of the former Penang restaurant, on West 71st Street and Columbus Avenue. Photo by Linnea Covington

Abandoned enclosed cafés not only look messy and run down but some of them also appear downright gaudy. On the corner of West 71st Street and Columbus Avenue stands the old home of the Malaysian restaurant Penang, which relocated down the street. The old building still hosts the restaurant’s built-in sidewalk café. But instead of sitting there completely useless like Monsoon, the space is being used to advertise for Custo Barcelona shops in SoHo. The trendy clothing store planned to open in that spot until the deal fell through, but it hasn’t removed its ads. This does not bode well with the locals.

“It’s hideous,” said Ashley Berner, a neighborhood resident. “But it’s less pornographic then the last one.”

(Previous ads featured close to naked models, but now the figures wear neon clothes.)

The enclosed café has also limited pedestrian space to the width of a doublewide stroller. A complaint was made to the Department of Buildings on May 23, 2008. Carly Sullivan, a spokesperson for the department, said that this type of advertising is not permitted in this district and that the agency is investigating the illegal ads.

The building is owned by Dalmau Equities, but is managed by Josh Strauss of Robert K. Futterman & Associates. Strauss did not return calls for comment.

“It’s unsightly and it’s jutting out very far into the sidewalk. We would like to see it operating or come down,” said Andrew Albert, co-chair of Board 7’s transport committee.

It’s not easy to get a permit for a sidewalk café. Owners must apply through the Department of Consumer Affairs, which in turn obtains approval from the Department of Transportation. Next, the local Community Board reviews the application and gives consent before the City Council can give final approval.

While getting a permit for enclosed café isn’t harder to obtain than a normal sidewalk café, the actual café is harder to get rid of. This is why both Board 7 and Brewer want to revise the rules for these types of structures. The discussion has focused on how long the space can be in operation and who maintains responsibility if the business should fail or move.

“We are trying to find a balance in helping the building owner to find a new tenant to use that space for a restaurant,” said Jesse Bodine, Brewer’s director of constituent services and policy. “We don’t want them tearing them down and bringing them back up in four months. That doesn’t help anybody.”

Despite the Monsoon and Penang problem spots, Board 7 has signed off on 15 enclosed spaces since 2008.

“The reason we keep approving these [enclosed] cafés is because the board felt it’s unfair to single out one café for disapproval since we don’t have new regulations,” said Penny Ryan, Board 7’s district manager. “The board wants to have a uniform policy from the city that affects all outdoor cafés.”

What exactly that uniform policy might entail includes shorter time limits for the permits, making the landlord responsible for the café and building less permanent structures. After sending a letter to the Department of Transportation and Department of Consumer Affairs about these issues, Brewer met with the mayor’s office a few weeks ago to discuss what should happen.

“These questions aren’t answered,” she said, “but they have been identified.”

A potential model, Brewer said, can found on West 58th Street and 10th Avenue at The Greek Kitchen. Board 4 just approved an enclosed café there, which has yet to be built, on the stipulation that the owners won’t use stone and that if the restaurant goes, so does the café.

“It’s a quality-of-life issue,” Brewer said. “We want our small business to do well, but we don’t want to be taken advantage of if they are gone.”