Forum Archive: Posts by: cala282677

My husband and I bought a brownstone in Queens, got a permit and renovated the basement into a rec room w/ 1/2 bath. When our engineer went to close the job, we were audited for showing no exterior house stairs on the plan and for not having a basement stair rail (mind you – no similar homes do), so we added the rail, changed the plans, paid the violation and submitted the COC. Now they claim our 1/2 bath size if 5′ x 7′ must be 5′ x 5′ but won’t cite the code that states this. We hired a lawyer to find such a law/code and he could not. The DOB then required plans for the 1st and 2nd floors which we gave them. Now they are saying other changes have been made to house since 1920 (we bought in 2008) and that we are responsible for paying to put the house back to its 1920′s state which will cost us thousands an we have no interest in doing. Please give us your advice. We are feeling bamboozled here.