Do I Need an Architect?
I recently bought a condo. In the original floorplan, the condo is a two bedroom. The former owners took the dividing wall down and now its a one bedroom. We would like to put the wall back to its original spot. Condo board says that this will require a building permit. Problem is that we…
I recently bought a condo. In the original floorplan, the condo is a two bedroom. The former owners took the dividing wall down and now its a one bedroom. We would like to put the wall back to its original spot. Condo board says that this will require a building permit. Problem is that we are on a limited budget and don’t want to spend lots of money on architects, etc. I am not even sure whether the taking down of the wall by the previous owners was done with a proper permit. In essense I have floor plans for what I want done (since it’s just the old floor plans). I don’t have the floor plans for what’s currently the situation (but they are easy to produce – just delete a wall). What I need is some advice on how to do this on the cheap…
you legally must file an application to do the work dividing the room. thats all the board is worried about. if you have wall shown on approved plans, you will have no problem getting it approved but you are still required to get a permit to do the work and pay the city its fees. the funny thing is if the inspector gave you a violation for taking the wall down illegally, his remedy would be to return the premises to its legal condition OR legalize the one large room . that means they would tell you to put the wall back up. still you need to put it back up as it was approved. whether its ‘1hour rated’ or not needs to be signed for (responsibility) by an architect in the building departments eyes.
other than that…
its only the board you need to please. you would never get in trouble with the building dept once the work was completed.
if you can’t get it done for less than 1k, call me.
(or if you need to see if the plans show the wall)
Wow. Tough crowd here. I’m an architect. You do have some options. One would be to find out what is shown on the plans that are on file at the DOB. If the previous owner who took down the wall did so illegally, the plans would still show the wall. This may get you somewhere but I still kind of doubt it. It may at least get you around filing plans and needing an architect. Maybe a contractor could pull a permit based on the plans already on file. Or just have a contractor do it. As said above, the DOB will (most likely) never find out. The second option, and what I would recommend is put up a “temporary” wall. Get creative with how it attaches to the wall and the floor. Have a carpenter make some double-sided casework. Call it a piece of furniture, whatever. The idea is have something made off-site, maybe in a few pieces, and all you need to do is have it brought in. Like a couch. But wall shaped. Call it a shoji screen.
So the common sense thing is to persuade the board to get a licensed, insured contractor to put up the wall. In a day. The probability of DOB finding out is infinitesimal.
But then, common sense is a quality little to be found nowadays.
the dob will know it because the condo board made the demand of a permit..you will certainly get a $1500 fine for work without a permit if you proceed..the second fine will be $5000
But what if the wall was illegally taken down? How will DOB know if there is an inspection. Their plans show a wall and a wall there is.
Although it is comical that they might fine a resident for having a wall that was in the original plan.
“Oh pooh – don’t listen to these ninnies.”
Except of course the coop board will fine the resident when they discover the wall. Hello.
The problem is that the law is the law. You need to file with DOB to build permanent new partitions. A lot of people do it illegally, and a lot of people don’t pay their taxes either, but the right thing is the right thing. If you can’t afford it right away put up bookshelves. But you may as well call a Court Street architect/expiditer firm such as Schnall & Schnall, they will do it for you and then you will have a kosher job, you won’t have to worry about jeopardizing your insurance or the condo’s insurance and you will avoid stop work orders and fines and other problems that could arise if you do the job cowboy-style without the proper permits. Onwership is all about responsibility.
this is why many people might consider that house yesterday on 2nd street to a condo. If your own house you don’t deal with nonsense like power hungry controlling boards.