B3-2 Family vs 3 Family
reading past C of O forums i am still a little unclear and have a question on proper house codes. i have an old row house that predates a C of O. the only documentation on my home shows it classified with the Dept of Finance as a B3-2 family dwelling, eventhough it has operated…
reading past C of O forums i am still a little unclear and have a question on proper house codes. i have an old row house that predates a C of O. the only documentation on my home shows it classified with the Dept of Finance as a B3-2 family dwelling, eventhough it has operated as a 3-family for years and all the neighboring homes are 3-family. to be proper about it, is it as simple as filling out the D of F’s request to update property file to a 3-family? Or does that trigger all kinds of Bldg Dept concerns and revised tax implications?
look on the HPD website, there might be a record there of what the I-card status is. Otherwise you would need to go down to their warehouse to get a hardcopy. If there is no CofO this is the official record of what your house can be legally used as.
If the use of your building does not match your CO or I-card, you are potentially opening the door to a wide variety of legal problems. NYC Administrative Code states that no change can be made in the occupancy or use of an existing building that is inconsistent with the last issued certificate of occupancy for that building. Housing and building code compliance differs depending on 1-, 2-, or multi-family dwelling. There are homeowner’s evenings at the DOB every Tuesday. You can ask your questions there and/or assess your own tolerance for risk, applications, inspections and fines. If/when the date ever comes to sell your house, you’ll only be able to market it as matches your existing CO. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/contact/contact.shtml
this all helpful information, thank you vinca. but also leads me to more questions. given the parallel universes, is the process of updating your data at DofF pretty much a non-issue. you update it, then i suppose you are assessed a slightly higher tax bracket for 3fams over what was mistakenly noted as 2fams? i can imagine a situation where the DofF would be happy with that and that’s about it?
or is it considered a ‘change’ to the DoB that triggers a quagmire of CofO mandates, potential violations. because frankly, if there’s no benefit to attaining a CofO for a house that pre-dates 1938, i don’t know why i would put my myself through the torture of attaining one.
this all helpful information, thank you vinca. but also leads me to more questions. given the parallel universes, is the process of updating your data at DofF pretty much a non-issue. you update it, then i suppose you are assessed a slightly higher tax bracket for 3fams over what was mistakenly noted as 2fams? i can imagine a situation where the DofF would be happy with that and that’s about it?
or is it considered a ‘change’ to the DoB that triggers a quagmire of CofO mandates, potential violations. because frankly, if there’s no benefit to attaining a CofO for a house that pre-dates 1938, i don’t know why i would put my myself through the torture of attaining one.
BTW, see this link for building classification codes: http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/text/nyc_building_class.html
Dept. of Finance and DOB basically exist in parallel universes and don’t normally communicate with each other. DoF will gladly register and tax you as 4-family, even if your legal CO is 2-family. For more property tax/finance info, see: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property.shtml
To check your CO on DoB site (though it sounds like you’ve done that), see: http://nyc.gov/html/dob/html/bis/bis.shtml
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/certificates/certificates.shtml
and several additional links on second page including: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/certificates/co_factsheet.shtml