Not Filing=DOB Inspection?
I had a lot of electrical, plumbing and drywall people come in and give me bids on the work. If one of those people, which I have not hired, wants to be nasty and report that I am doing some work without a permit- calls up DOB/city and tries to get me in trouble, how…
I had a lot of electrical, plumbing and drywall people come in and give me bids on the work. If one of those people, which I have not hired, wants to be nasty and report that I am doing some work without a permit- calls up DOB/city and tries to get me in trouble, how easy will that be for him? will the DOB come here and say they want to go into my house to inspect it? Do I have to let them in? Anyone had that done to him?
To bobjohn: This will not work as they will come down even after 60 complaints
Sheesh get the permit already and get a good night’s sleep.
they will continue to come to your door and leave notices and than the judge will file an order requiring you to let them into your home. it is best to just file a permit.
Do NOT let anyone in! If you are not doing a large amount of work by the time they come back you will hopefully be done…..
oh, here is a solution: before doing any work start filing complains on yourself. you complain, inspector comes and do not find anything. After a dozen times they will stop coming. This is when you start your illegal activity. I am sure they will ignore your contractor complains after this as well.
work without a permit is now a minimum $5000 fine..plus a percentage of th work that you have done…it can easily add upp to tens of thousands of dollars.. exactly what were you trying to do by playing fast and loose?
There is no need for show “probable cause.” An anonymous complaint is enough to trigger a DOB inspection visit. In the absence of a warrant,you have the right to refuse access. But then just be prepared for an inspector to return with the proper inspection enforcement docs. Or, you may not be home when the DOB arrives. In that case, DOB will make 3 attempts to inspect. If they can’t get access by the 3rd try, they will drop the effort. Not sure, but if that happens, the complaint does not “close.” I think it stays on the books as “unresolved” or something like that. A DOB employee told us this vicious, baseless complaining occurs all the time but they can’t do anything about it. By law, they are compelled to respond to all claims of DOB work violations.
Unfortunately, if someone really has it out for you, they can continue to call in frivolous complaints thus triggering new DOB inspection attempts on those new complaints. In that case, your choice is to open your house for inspection or remaining in perpetual avoidance. According to the DOB employee we talked with, there was one case in which over 300 anonymous complaints were filed against a single residence by a maniac complainant and there were no violations on the building!
Electrical and plumbing work at a min requires a permit. Start moving walls and such requires a building permit.
Why do you anticipate any of them making such a call?