New Home: Legally registered as 3-family but I'm using as single family
Hi there, I purchased my new home which is registered as a 3-family but no official C of O on record. I have no intentions of using it as a 3-family. I will be doing extensive renovations but not just yet (will be several months before I start). I just received a permit notice for my oil tank (which, I will be replacing some day to natural gas) from the fire department stating that it is valid until the end of the year. My questions are: 1) Do I need to continue to renew this permit given I’m occupying as “single family”? 2) If I don’t, will I get a violation on record? 3) Does it make sense to register my home as a single family now or when I start my renovations? My understanding is that it is more cost effective if I make the change when I renovate. Any insights will be greatly appreciated! Lynda
lyndapak
in Building Code 11 years ago
5
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5 replies
dorkofwindsor | 11 years ago
permits plans and expediting is going to take about 3-4 months from what i can deduce if you want to change to 1 fam. it is pretty important if you decide to make the change when you renovate. If it is in an area where one families are at a premium (like north slope), then it is definiteley worth it. However, the reno itself is totally different, for a 3-fam you need to do sprinklers, fire separations, etc as a three fam. Not insignificant, and it affects the design. You should make that decision asap. Keeping kitchens, partition walls, sprinklers etc is the downside to living in a three as a one, Opening it up light and air and getting rid of kitchens sprinklers and fire seperations is the upside. If you are not in an area where one fans are not at a market premium, you should do a cost breakdown analysis along with your quality of living assessment and budget. For the paperwork you’re probably looking at $15k if you use a PE / expediter, more if you use a full blown architect in the traditional sense.
lyndapak | 11 years ago
What I’ve deduced is that I need to keep renewing my oil tank until I convert to gas OR until I change my C of O, whichever comes first. Additionally, I will probably change my C of O to a 2-family when I start my renovations (few months from now) so that I can have a legal kitchen on my garden level so that I have flexibility – e.g. my parents can come to live with my as they get older or if (big IF) I decide to rent out my garden level when my kids go off to college (never say never, right?) FYI – when I bought the house, the partitions separating the “apartments” were already all pretty much removed. So basically the house is configured for use as a 1 family with just the legal requirements of a 3-family. Thank you all for your input – all very valuable!
dazednconfused2 | 11 years ago
I would respectfully disagree with resident2\. As an architect, I’m approaching this from a design standpoint, and thinking of how you can live in a three-family versus a one. As a three-family, you’d need to have each dwelling unit separated from the others by fire rated partitions, including the doors, which means no beautiful parlor hall pocket doors, and all entries to apartments being fire rated, so probably metal. If you change it to a one-family, you get rid of the separations, making it all open. Imagine the difference between a 12 foot sheetrock wall around the main stair versus the whole stair being exposed to the front parlor. The difference in the amount of light inside the space is huge. Also, as a three-family, you need to be able to go from one room to the other without going through the stair hall. Incorporate the stair hall into the residence and gain a ton of valuable circulation space, making the rooms much bigger. As Jock said, to do the work, you’ll need a permit. Which means that if you filed it as a three-family, when it’s filed, inspected, and signed off, it needs to meet all the requirements of a three-family. If the question is whether to file as a three and live as a one because of potential filing issues later, this is a question we often discuss with our clients. Unless your plan is to sell in a few years, our advice is to make it the place you want, not a place that will be easier to sell to some fictitious buyer who may or may not want to buy a three-family home. Why would you go through all of the trouble of renovating, only to have a home that isn’t really what you bought it for? And last, but certainly not least, if you file as a three, get it signed off, and then do work to make it easier to live as a one, and a neighbor reports you doing work without a permit, you face ECB and DOB fines that add up to tens of thousands of dollars for multi-family dwellings.
resident2 | 11 years ago
Yes, keep renewing your oil tank permit until you have the tank removed with your gas conversion. If it is a legal three family, yes you should keep registering it with HPD, it is a multiple dwelling after all, but that said the fine for not registering it especially as you have no tenants is nothing. But when it comes to filing your renovations; I think it is a shame to convert to a one family from a legal three. There is nothing wrong with “under-using” a house, but it is a major problem to convert it back to three. (virtually impossible at any economic level that makes sense) Just do your renovations under the “old code” alteration and leave it as a legal three, that way you have options, future buyers have options etc. As a one family, there are no options. If you are referring to the Real Estate tax class; yes you can have it taxed as a one family, the tax assessors office will need to inspect to see that it is being used as a one family, only one kitchen, no locks on interior doors etc. But the taxes will not go down significantly, it is basically the same tax class. Changing the C of O and filing “improvements” will trigger a tax increase.
jockdeboeraia | 11 years ago
To get a permit you will need to show it going from a 3 to a 1 family.