Do I or Landlord need Certificate of Occupancy
Hoping to get some information here… I own a dance studio in NY. Ground floor, 1200 square feet; newly constructed. We rent. Having major problems with tenant above who is not paying rent and blaming that on us complaining about the loud music. Not true, but that’s a whole other story. In any event, her…
Hoping to get some information here… I own a dance studio in NY. Ground floor, 1200 square feet; newly constructed. We rent. Having major problems with tenant above who is not paying rent and blaming that on us complaining about the loud music. Not true, but that’s a whole other story. In any event, her constanting calling 311 and 911 invited a whole sweep of DEP, Fire Dept, Alcohol guys, PD and Dept of building descending upon us. We don’t sell or have alcohol on premises so those guys left, fire dept., everything was fine, so they left. When we told the DEP what our contractors did to the ceiling, he said impossible, but whatever…I have a letter from our contractor. But the PD issued a summons for no certificate of occupancy. Do I need that for renting a space? Thought that was the building owner’s responsibility.
Tenant’s constant complaining resulted in a complaint lodged against the building saying “place of assembly permit needed with 200 people”. Landlord says we need to clear that up. The only thing is we wish we had that many people in our studio….We’re struggling…
Any insight where to begin to clear this up? Thanks in advance…
As stated before. One thing I would like to point out. It doesn’t really matter if you actually have more then 75 persons at a time or not is the space is so designed to have more then 75 persons. If according to the code there can be more then 75 persons then you need a place of assembly permit with a certificate of operation in addition to the c. of o. unless you can come up with a pecvuliar design you will follow that has less then 75 persons in it and you will hae to follow that arrangement setting.
It was a MARCH and the summons was exactly for “no certificate of occupancy” issued by the PD. We are following up with our architect, since the City signed off on whatever renovations were done to the space. Vinca, sorry you misinterpreted my “whatever” as dismissing my obligations, as that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The last thing we wanted was trouble with a neighbor.
A small fortune, in addition to everything else, was spent on soundproofing. Our contractor provided us with the following letter detailing exactly what was done:
1) 4″ batts of Rock wood sound attenuating insulation was installed to the entire ceiling; 2) they de-coupled the ceiling by installing furring perpendicular to the existing floor/ceiling system. This cuts down, drastically, the transfer of vibration/sound to above as the sheetrock is not installed directlly on the floor system and therefore less conneciton points to transfer sound/vibraiton; 3) installed Quiet-Rock 525 to the new furring strips/ceiling as per manufacturers recommendation using Quiet-Seal caulking in between all boards & where Quiet-Rock comes in contact with any other materials or walls/floors; 4) installed 5/8″ type x drywall to the entire ceiling which then received 3 coats of tape & spackle.
During that MARCH we told the DEP guy this is what the contractor did, his response was “YEAH, RIGHT”.
Let me add, we do NOT play the music loudly, and especially now with complaining, but our students have to hear the music to dance too. We now find out that this tenant lived across the street before moving above us, lived above a deli, and accused the deli of making noise and constantly calling the PD until the landlord evicted her, but she didn’t pay rent for a number of months. I was thinking what the hell noise can a deli make, but well what do I know.. And now she is above us, doing the exact same thing.
We don’t have more than 75 people at a time, but now are made to defend every single accusation.
Thanks for the responses…
You
As a broker, I’ve been working with a dance studio to find a space for them. One thing I quickly noticed is that you can’t legally put a dance studio (or yoga studio, fitness studio, massage parlor) in most retail areas in brownstone Brooklyn (7th Ave between Flatbush and 15th St; 5th Ave between Flatbush and 9th St; Smith Street; most of Court St south of Atlantic; Henry St; Atlantic west of Clinton St; Montague St west of Clinton St; etc.) I think most people either don’t know this or turn a blind eye. It really only becomes an issue in situations like the one at hand or insurance issues like say if you have a fire and were illegally occupying the space. The bottom line is that if your store is in a C1 overlay zoning district, you might be out of luck regardless of who’s responsible for trying to obtain the C of O.
Keep in mind that the occupancy load isn’t determined arbitrarily…you can’t say “I have a large space, but we never fill it up.”
The Building Code (go to DOB website, click on the ‘reference materials’ tab on the left, then choose ‘2008 Code’) tells you how many occupants each type of use has psf (table 1004 in chapter 10 of the code). Multiply this by your square footage, and you have your occupant load. If this is more than 75, you have to deal with place of assembly issues.
I would say that it’s the building owner’s responsibility to deal with C of O. But it would be your issue to deal with place of assembly if needed.
I used to be in a space next to a dance studio…I’d like to think that I have a high tolerance for noise, but it was really disruptive. You might want to look into mitigating the noise by installing acoustical tiling/insulation on the ceiling to help end your war w/ your neighbor and get the city off you back.
NYPD issued a summons for lack of a CofO? That would be the first time I heard that, and if DOB was present why wouldn’t they have issued the violation? Was this a MARCH team inspection?
That said, every building needs a CofO and short of some super-net lease, I cannot imagine a scenario where anyone but the property owner would be responsible for securing that.
As vinca points out, a lot of this should be covered in your lease. If tenant is required to ‘obtain all necessary permits for operation,’ then it would be tenant’s reponsibility to obtain a public assembly permit or to prove why it does not need one.
I also recommend that you not be too dismissive of the noise complaint. This is quantifiable and tenant already has DEP’s attention.
Newly constructed buildings definitely need a C/O – . You’re not allowed to occupy without a TCO (temp C/O) or a C/O.
You also need a permit to operate as a Physical Culture establishment.
Letters of No Objection (as mentioned by carraig) can only be obtained for older buildings (ie – you don’t have a C/O because the concept did not exits in NYC when the building was constructed).
A Certificate of Operation (as mentioned by Vinca) is only required for spaces with 75 persons or more. Do you have 75 persons in your dance studio? If yes, you’ll need this too.
As to the question as to who is responsible? It is the Landlord’s responsibility to obtain the C/O (no way he should be collecting rent without it) but you still shouldn’t be occupying the space without the C/O.
When I had a restaurant the building I used had no C of O. I was able to get a “Letter of no Objection” from the Department of Buildings. Back then the fee was $100 for the “Letter of no Objection”.
It’s always amusing (not) when people dismiss their obligations with “but whatever…”. I doubt you were asked to produce a Certificate of Occupancy. More likely you were asked for your Certificate of OPERATION. Your contractor’s letter would be meaningless to detrimental if he was required to obtain permits and did not. The rest of the matter is between you, your lease, your LL and possibly your attorney. For information about Place of Assembly certificates see: http://bit.ly/glI9vZ