Conversion of SRO to one-family
Hi – can someone offer advice about converting an SRO (considered commercial) to a one-family (residential) in terms of the bureaucratic procedure? My lawyer tells me that an architect & expetitor must advise me on this, but if the house currently has a certificate of non-harassment then, I should be able to change the designation,…
Hi – can someone offer advice about converting an SRO (considered commercial) to a one-family (residential) in terms of the bureaucratic procedure? My lawyer tells me that an architect & expetitor must advise me on this, but if the house currently has a certificate of non-harassment then, I should be able to change the designation, remove it from rent stabilization and the certificate of occupancy would be amended.
Do I need an architect involved in this process, even if I don’t plan to currently make any renovations to the building?
Does this conversion have positive tax implications (commercial to one-family)?
Any other advice/recommendations?
Hey all I am in a similar situation (trying to buy a former SRO). There is a cert of non-harassment but we wish to convert into a 3 family. How is this process different? Mortgage lenders recommendations? Thanks everyone and any help will be deeply appreciated.
If you have a certificate of no-harassment and you are not trying to convert it to a multi-family I don’t think the expediter will be adding much value. Get an architect who has done this before and save yourself $10,000.
That is the number that I hear too, but that is for the paperwork. As 11216 points out, you need to estimate how much work you are going to need to do to bring the building up to code. You’ll need those sign-offs before you will be issued a new C of O.
Actually if the house was delivered to you vacant and you receive information on previous renters for the past 3 years from the previous owner it should not be that bad. Especially since it is a one-family that I assume you will be living in. If you have not purchased the house yet I would have the owners make a representation in the contract that they did not harass the tenants for the past 3 years to vacate the premises. This will help to ensure that the Certificate of No-Harassment goes as smoothly as possible. If your application is straightforward – e.g. there were no tenants for the past 3 years or the previous landlord had a good relationship with his/her tenants – then I would not get an expeditor. They will not add any value to the process. The application is pretty straightforward but it takes time to process. I received mine in about 3 months.
Once that is done your architect submits plans to the DOB for a change of C of O that needs to be approved by an examiner. Once the plan is approved (and it should not be that complicated since you are converting it to a 1 family – multi-families are more complicated since there are more requirements) a permit is issued for you to do the work according to the submitted plans. Once the work is done call to schedule an appointment to have the place inspected and then the conversion will be approved. It is not impossible but It will take time. Make sure you have a lawyer that is on the ball. Also some people get a portion of the sale price escrowed until all of this is worked out. This ensures that the seller is cooperating with you throughout the process.
Thanks very much for your feedback. Yes, the house is vacant with a valid cert of non-harassment through the end of 2009.
I have since spoken with an expeditor, who gave me a ballpark estimate of $10K for the full job of delivering a new C of O (including getting the drawings done by a licensed architect). That seems to be the going rate discussed on other parts of Brownstoner.com. Would you say that is reasonable?
I agree with the preceding. You don’t say this explicitly, but is the building being delivered vacant?
it is not a commercial building in terms of zoning — though as a multiple dwelling it might be just that in terms of mortgage requirements. To convert from a SRO to a single family the hardest thing is the certificate of non-harassement which it sounds like you have. check w/ the city if it is current/ sufficient. then you will need to change the C of O. Thats a pretty big endeavor and will require both architect and expeditor. You’ll need drawings of the building and they city will do inspections of everything: so you might well have a good deal of work to do on it even though you don’t want to do any renovations now because you will have to get everything in the building to code. Before you take this on have a thorough house inspection and a walkthrough with architect & contractor so you can ascertain what the costs involved might be.