Would you report an illegal conversion?

I suspect an illegal conversion in an apartment building - someone bought an old building and chopped up the units to house three people each. I've thought about reporting it because it creates extra problems for the neighborhood on a lot of levels, but I don't know if I want to stir up trouble.

Would you report it? Have you ever done that?

If it's causing real trouble in your neighborhood, why wouldn't you report it. Do it anonymously.

How would that be stirring up trouble on your part.

the conversions can be dangerous.

Well, M would pocket the money and run.

Report it to the police


* M = Madoff

...and I couldn't figure out how conversion was illegal...

But since I've read this, yes, I think you should report it. There could be lives at stake if the building isn't up to code.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090220/OPINION/902200309/1015

New York - For decades, volunteer firefighting officials in Rockland have warned that one day their colleagues would die, trapped in an illegally converted apartment or condo, running into rooms without windows or walls blocking what they expected would be an escape route. So many single-family homes have been altered into two, four and even six apartments that the officials were certain tragedy would someday strike. It was just a matter of when and where.

When that sorrowful day came, one firefighter from Rockland died and another suffered severe injuries. The fire in which they became trapped swept through a tenement in the Bronx on Jan. 23, 2005 - a day the FDNY now knows as Black Sunday. In all, six members of the FDNY were trapped by the flames and forced to jump from a fourth-story window.

Well, he was using a ruler to do it.

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