Confused About Building/Apartment Status
We purchased a duplex condominium in a brownstone that on the nyc.gov site has it listed as “SRO Restricted: YES”. At the same time, it also has a “Certificate of Occupancy” which lists the floors as “1/2 CLASS A DWELLING”. What does this mean for us? Must admit, it was our first buy and I…
We purchased a duplex condominium in a brownstone that on the nyc.gov site has it listed as “SRO Restricted: YES”. At the same time, it also has a “Certificate of Occupancy” which lists the floors as “1/2 CLASS A DWELLING”. What does this mean for us? Must admit, it was our first buy and I missed this completely. Two questions:
a) Will it be a problem if we ever want to rent out the apartment?
b) Will we have a problem getting future permits for alterations, i.e putting on a roof deck or roof extension?
Any advice greatly appreciated 🙂
Thanks.
Hi all,
Thanks so much for the feedback. It certainly doesn’t sound all that promising then. Some further info…we were indeed represented by an attorney and paid out a decent sum for a title search. Is there anybody I can ask to get the official word on this before deciding what action to take? Babs…certainly not an all cash transaction. We had to take out a 30 year mortgage.
Once again, thank you for your feedback 🙂
you would be surprised what lawyers, banks and title insurance companies let slide. It may be nothing, or it may be indicative of an issue. I would recommend you ask a competent architect/expediter to review the CoO promptly.
I am one step further in the process, and can recommend an architect and a lawyer.
It’s the proverbial good news bad news situation. Good news is you have an excellent malpractice suit against your attorneyy, bad news is your screwed.
It is NYS law that both buyer and seller be represented by attorneys in any real estate transaction. How is it possible that your attorney didn’t discuss this with you? I also can’t imagine any bank closing on this. Was it an all-cash purchase?
sorry. its brooklynexpediter@gmail.com
1/2 a dwelling unit because it is aduplex. A SRO is always a class “B” apartment so if it SRO restricted it doesn’t make sense if your C. of O. says class “a” it is something that definitely has to be checked out more. Maybe it was an sro at some point and dob didn’t know about it ? email me the address to: brooklynexpditer@gmail.com
and I will see if I can up with the clarification behind as it sounds a little weird and contradictory.
Did you have an attorney represent you during the purchase? How would he/she let you close without discussing this with you?
Is it even possible to condo convert while SRO restrictions are still in place. One would think that the SRO would need to be dissolved before the condo conversion could be completed.
Very interested to see how this turns out. Please keep us informed.
Shouldn’t your title company have raised this issue during their CO search? HPD site might provide additional information. Search by using either address or block and lot number (latter is usually easier): http://bit.ly/bGGESj
Once your page opens, look at the number of A and B units in the grid across the top and correlate them with the CO. Also click on links down the left-hand side.
Your dwelling unit is spread across two floors hense the 1/2 class a dwelling per floor. Being an SRO can certainly be a problem. If you want to get a permit it will take extra time, depending upon what you want to do you may be requried to get a certificate of non-harrisment. Plan well in advance.
Jock deBoer, AIA