The article doesn't do a good job of making clear that Riccardi wasn't jailed because his condo violated the city's building code (or his HOA board's rules). Rather, he was jailed for contempt of court - "willfully failing" to obey a court order.

The article suggests (though isn't entirely clear) that Riccardi was on the losing end of years-long civil litigation with his HOA board, and that at the end of that litigation, Riccardi was hit with a court order directing him to remove the extension. Riccardi then admits that, despite the court order, he failed to actually make any tangible progress toward removing the extension.

Riccardi asserts that he and his wife "couldn't find contractors to do the work" because they "didn't have the $300,000 or more to remove the addition." But did he do anything at all - beyond calling a few contractors for a ballpark estimate - to demonstrate he was trying his best to comply with the order? Even if the whole project would ultimately cost $300,000, did they have $30,000 or even $3,000 to get the ball rolling? Did they start the process by hiring an architect and an expediter to help pull permits? Did they look into seeing if their title policy might cover some of the costs (since they claim that they weren't the ones who built the unpermitted extension)? Riccardi doesn't mention doing any of this (and if he had, you'd think he would mention it because it'd bolster his case for gross mistreatment).

In theory, judges shouldn't send folks to prison for contempt of court unless they're intentionally disobeying/stonewalling a court order and refuse to back down even after being expressly warned to do so. It's possible the judge here abused her power - that she should've given Riccardi more time to comply, for instance - but the article doesn't actually provide any evidence that she abused her power.

To be clear, I'm not saying - at all! - that NYC DOB or Riccardi's HOA board was right. It is possible, even likely, that Riccardi's HOA board was very, very wrong. For instance, why did the HOA board wait until 2016 to initiate a dispute when the extension at issue was built over a decade before, prior to Riccardi even moving in? That strongly suggests that the board had some other motive for giving Riccardi hell.

Personally, I'm in favor of much tighter legal restrictions on HOA boards' power. But again, Riccardi ultimately went to jail for defying a court order, not for defying an HOA board order.