Certificate of Occupancy
I am looking to do some renovations to my house and when the architect tried to lookup the c/o for the house she could not find it. When we were buying the home the lawyer said that it was typical for houses of this age to not have a c/o. What can I do to resolve this?

zhideng
in Brownstoner Renovation 11 years and 2 months ago
5
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zhideng | 11 years and 2 months ago
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Thanks for the info, the architect did mention that we can file for a letter of no objection. She also stated that we can file for permits for an existing 2 family but we might risk it not getting approved.

jockdeboeraia | 11 years and 2 months ago
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Either get an lno or have the architect file for a c of o.

Arkady | 11 years and 2 months ago
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This issue has been addressed several times on here – look in the archives.

slopefarm | 11 years and 2 months ago
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Agree with above. We were in this boat. Our architect filed plans for an alt-2, captioned “renovate existing 2-family.” When DOB approved the plans, we were good to go.

Putnamdenizen | 11 years and 2 months ago
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Very common. What seems a bit uncommon was that your architect doesn’t know the answer to this question. If s/he is clueless I might suggest you getting another architect more familiar with Brooklyn and the NYC DOB. Depending on the kind of renovations you are doing you can proceed without a c/o (easiest) to getting one issued (which may trigger other governmental interventions). Even if your house doesn’t have a c/o it has a DOB file. Find out which expeditor your architect is using…