I recently had a contractor put up a vestibule in front of my house. I’m pretty sure my neighbor called 311 to complain and so there is an outstanding complaint for “A 1-FAMILY HOME IS DOING CONSTRUCTION, AN EXTENSION IN THE FRONT W\/O ANY PERMITS. Category 5.” In the interim, I found out that the contractor is not insured and he “lied” to me saying that there was no need to file. (I was STUPID enough to believe him). Short of suing him I feel helpless. I visited a “violations removal” storefront near the DOB offices. They want about $5,000 to cover “legalization” and new house plans, etc… They told me that my house is an R2A 1-family home, and that my vestibule is ahead by 3 feet of my acjacent neighbor’s property. So I will probably need to try to legalize it as is but will most likely need to tear it down and meet DOB code. Additionally, I will need to pay NYC DOB $2,500 in penalties and also risk having my whole house inspected and open to further violations. Have I just opened a “can of worms” ? What if I ignore the violation ? Does the DOB have to issue a violation within 45 days or can they take their time. What should I do – hire an expeditor \/ violations removal firm with in-house architect & engineer \/ architect alone ? HELP !!! What if i do NOTHING if I plan to live in the house for the next 5 years or more ? What will be the max penalty I have to pay ? HELP !!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently had a contractor put up a vestibule in front of my house. I’m pretty sure my neighbor called 311 to complain and so there is an outstanding complaint for “A 1-FAMILY HOME IS DOING CONSTRUCTION, AN EXTENSION IN THE FRONT W\/O ANY PERMITS. Category 5.” In the interim, I found out that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"schneps_byline":"","schneps_post_style":"","schneps_post_source":"","schneps_syndicated_read_more":"","schneps_post_source_sitename":"","schneps_syndicated_thumb_html":"","schneps_syndicated_thumb_src":"","schneps_post_source_shortname":"","schneps_post_source_url":"","schneps_post_source_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[422],"tags":[],"districts":[],"class_list":["post-47177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dob"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2010\/08\/dob-complaint-v\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"DOB Complaint Violation","url":"http:\/\/www.brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2010\/08\/dob-complaint-v\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2010\/08\/dob-complaint-v\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"DOB","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"medman"}],"creator":["medman"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Forum Archive","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2010-08-05T11:45:50Z","datePublished":"2010-08-05T11:45:50Z","dateModified":"2010-08-05T11:45:50Z"},"rendered":"