building permits
I am getting close to purchasing a house on 16th street. Our inspection came out about like we expected except that the inspector pointed out a number of remodelling jobs that were done (well) with out permits. He tells us that when we remodel in the future with permits it will open us up to…
I am getting close to purchasing a house on 16th street. Our inspection came out about like we expected except that the inspector pointed out a number of remodelling jobs that were done (well) with out permits. He tells us that when we remodel in the future with permits it will open us up to a full inspection by the building department and we could incur permit and upgrade charges for all the violations they find in the household. Does anyone one have any experience with this sort of situation and what is the likely hood of getting “nailed” for the sins of the prior owners?
“If a complaint is made about work being done without a permit then the DOB will send someone out and if they go 3 times and don’t get access they will dismiss the complaint and it will become “resolved”. ” Really???
I am wondering whether they will get a court order to get in and check? or they may just give a violation ticket even though not get in to check?
Could Anyone offer opinions: if I got a complaint regarding my very old extension without permit( this type of extension is very common in Queens), what is the best thing to do? Go quickly to get an architect to legalize it or just wait for the violation tickets to come, or just try not allow dob people to access to my house (let it resolved)??
Thanks a lot.
shouldn’t have taken all that advice from brownstoners that said the permits were a waste of money.
all this makes me so comfortable that i’ve done so much work inside & out without the nagging issues of permits
So if I am looking at a place and it says “resolved” after violations that means no inspector was admitted so they just dropped it? What does it say if the problems were actually addressed and corrected?
The DOB does not have plan records on every building – I would say they have nothing on at least half of all buildings – the plans were lost, destroyed, the folder was lost, the DOB burned down, was flooded, etc. etc.
So there is a very good chance that the DOB will never know about the previous unpermitted work – If you do any new work then just show whatever you want to keep as existing to remain.
If a complaint is made about work being done without a permit then the DOB will send someone out and if they go 3 times and don’t get access they will dismiss the complaint and it will become “resolved”. (I think this is lame as it allows sleazy owners and contractors to get away with doing illegal work.)
Yes, by all means research your future house. And by all means have the current owner correct HIS mistakes and pay HIS fines. And by all means contact the DOB for confirmation that the ECB violations or the DOB violations are cleared. And by all means have an inspector come out to confirm all the above. Then watch as the DOB records show none of this ever happened, for years!
That’s how the DOB works now. Maybe it will be different in a hundred years when the current DOB employees are all dead!
Oh and Mojosexton, a complaint on record is not a violation. A complaint is just a complaint, that’s what the city does now as a log when you call 311 and complain about your neighbor. A violation is what you’re concerned about.
Email me your address and I can translate your online DoB record into English, if you’d like.
While what 2:44 says is generally right, a couple of qualifications
1. actually it’s not that the DoB doesn’t have plan records going back very far. They have records of some sort on every building in the city, and plans all the way back to well before the DoB was established as a city agency. It’s just that…
2. They don’t bother to reference previous records. They use the architect or engineer’s certification that the existing conditions drawing they are submitting is accurate. Much easier to put someone’s career on the line with signed and sealed certification than go back into the musty old records and double check.
oops!
I should of had my lawyer read through my query first!
I said violations in the sense of work done (like an additional bath (which we plan to remove anyways) without proper permits.
There is one complaint from 2002 in the houses file for construction without a permit. The inspector came by twice about 10 months after the complaint and no one was home either time. the complaint is now described as resolved. (I suspect they were installing the small deck in the back yard. It looks about 5+ years old and is the kind of visible project that can get your neighbors riled up)