Certificate of Occupancy mismatch

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Sara Edelman
Senior Mortgage Consultant
Approved Funding Corp
NMLS 65858
718-207-7751

Guest User | 8 years and 11 months ago

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billcash

in Conversion 9 years ago

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Hi,
I am considering the purchase of a townhouse whose Certificate of Occupancy does not match the current house layout :
– The certificate of occupancy is 60 years old and is for a mixed use building with 4+ units
– The current layout is a 1-2 family home.
– Dept. of Finance knows it as a 1-2 family home
– An old Alt-2 approved permit (for some work that was actually never performed) refers to it as a 1-to-3 family home on the DOB website.
The current layout has probably been like this for decades. It seems that no permit was ever issued when converting from 4+ units to 2. House is being sold as is (i.e. despite the CofO mismatch).

Can I simply file to amend the Certificate of occupancy to match the current layout without having to put the entire house up to code?

If I do nothing, am I at risk of a DOB violation after the closing, because of this mismatch?

Can I apply for some Alt-1 or Alt-2 permits without modifying the certificate of occupancy and despite the mismatch?

Thanks!

SimpleTwig | 9 years ago

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Are you planning a renovation to keep it a 2 family? If so that would be the best time to correct the CofO. Unfortunately this is a violation as someone drastically altered the building without proper permits, and of course what follows no permits is shoddy cheap workmanship. If you’re buying it ‘as is’ and have a reasonable budget for renovations then you should be able to absorb the cost of a new CofO (about $3000). Have them reduce the price by around $5000 to for the probably fine you’ll get from the DOB when you submit plans. Alternatively you can make them change the CofO.

You should call an expeditor to find out exactly what fines/fees would be involved. I recommend S&M Expediting.

Lurker | 9 years ago

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You might only get into trouble if you decided to do more work and needed to file permits. If you just want to move in and rent it as-is, then you’re almost certainly fine. I don’t thnk it’s a problem to underuse a house, just overusing a house.
If you keep it as-is. when you decide to sell, do so as-is again ;). Read the comments scattered on this site about what it takes to bring a multi-family to code.

mrohrmann | 9 years ago

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To change the CofO would be an Alt-1 change so you are looking at opening up a can of worms here with the DOB just saying.

billcash

in Conversion 8 years and 11 months ago

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Thanks for those replies.
With current setup, could we get an Alt-2 permit approved (easier and faster) in order to start renovating select items; and only file an Alt-1 later when ready to officially change the occupancy ?
Could this Alt-2 kind of grandfather the current layout ?

mrohrmann | 8 years and 11 months ago

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You should really talk to your architect(s) to get all the details as to what an Alt -2 will cover as this is much more than an administrative change trust me and you don’t want to do all the work then have to rip things out to appease the DOB which in many cases is ridiculous.

Arkady | 8 years and 11 months ago

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Simple Twig, No permits doesn’t necessarily mean shoddy. If the change is many years old, lots of people did work w/o permits – there wasn’t the tight oversight of today & people didn’t know they even needed them.

daveinbedstuy | 8 years and 11 months ago

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You probably won’t get a mortgage if the actual layout dows not match the C of O.