Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration ordered the shutdown today of two Oakland apartment buildings that were plagued by long-running fire code violations, an aggressive new tactic in response to neighborhood concerns about persistently dangerous student housing conditions.

Using a power rarely invoked, the city's Bureau of Building Inspection gave tenants in the two buildings -- which have 12 apartments each -- until Monday to get out. They posted signs with the phone number of the University of Pittsburgh's off-campus housing arm, and reached out to Pitt to help relocate the students.

Acting Chief of Building Inspection Dan Cipriani said his inspector cited the properties at 331 and 337 McKee Place in 2006 and is "getting no cooperation" in fixing the violations.

"We've taken this unique step to really show that we're serious about this," said Mr. Ravenstahl. "Enough is enough."

The 311 McKee Place location was cited in late 2006 for mysterious gas odors, insufficient smoke detectors, doors with inadequate fire resistance, windows that don't open and piles of junk under the fire escape. It is owned by Dormont-based Elrod Investments, run by Jason Cohen.

"Since 2006, this owner has failed to correct the problems," said Public Safety Director Michael Huss. "This person has gotten away with this for far too long."

Mr. Cohen could not be reached for comment. Nor could Century 21 Progress Realty, which receives mail for 337 McKee Place owner Hosny Sayed Abdel Latif, according to the bureau.

The Post-Gazette reported on numerous building code violations in predominantly student housing in 2006, prompting city action.

Mr. Ravenstahl's action comes days after two Oakland residents, Laura M. Rosato and Nathan Hart, called for an Office of Municipal Investigations probe into code enforcement in the area. Both wrote that Senior Building Inspector Robert McPherson told them that citations "have been removed from their files" and "are not making it to housing court," as Mr. Hart put it.

When Mr. Cipriani asked Mr. McPherson about the comments, he learned of the outstanding fire code violations and told Mr. Huss.

Mr. Huss said there is a bottleneck in the inspection system that slows the transfer of cases to the district judges who hear housing code violations. He said a new computer system set to be up and running by mid-year should address that.

Today District Judge Gene Ricciardi ordered another company controlled by Mr. Cohen to submit to a building inspection tomorrow of its 3408 Parkview Ave. property, also in Oakland. "If that is not done, there's going to be hell to pay," he said.

Building inspectors filed housing code complaints regarding that property in January after a lengthy effort to get repairs made.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.