Certificate of No Harassment Advice

If the building has been used as the current owner states by family members with no 3rd party tenants, it should be no problem to get a letter of no harassment. No; the building does not need to be structured or occupied as the C of O states in order to get a letter of no harassment, it just needs to have no tenants and no tenants over the past 3-4 years that come back and claim that they were harassed out.
Have the seller to obtain the L of NH as a condition of the contract.
Getting a Bank Mortgage for an SRO will be a bigger question; unless you have a private banking relationship with a Bank, I do not know of any Banks that will give a conventional mortgage for an SRO and I would not enter into a 203K program for a change of C of O with an SRO issue…… you will run out of money, if there is even enough to realistically get it done in the first place. And do not make an ex SRO a 3-4 family to get a bigger 203K budget because the RE Tax assessment from changing an SRO to a 3 or 4 will just be the final straw to throw you into bankruptcy or worse.
Beware: there is a r eason that SRO’s are cheaper than buildings with class A C of O’s, just be sure you can deal and carry it all…. it is not for the novice unless you have very deep pockets.

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in General Discussion 9 years and 10 months ago

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slampiece | 9 years and 10 months ago

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I am about to go into contract on a brownstone home that is configured as a two-family home, but contains SRO units according to its Certificate of Occupancy. The owner said that his father bought the home as an SRO in 1965, and never changed the CofO. The owner said that the home has been used only by his family the last 50 years, and that he has never collected any rent over that time period. He has agreed to secure a letter of no-harassment so that we can legally change the configuration and apply for a two-family status with the DOB.

Things are moving quickly on our end. Our bank is about to order an appraisal of the home and we are deciding on an inspector. Given that we are going to begin putting money into this home and process, I want to be as sure as possible that the owner will, indeed, be able to secure a letter of non-harassment.

I’ve done some research and looked at the application for the letter of no harassment from HPD. On page 5 of the application, HPD asks the applicant to describe the actual appearance of the building and the legal configuration.

According to the CofO for this brownstone, the SRO or “B units” are on the top floor. According to the CofO, the top floor is legally configured as three furnished rooms and two kitchenettes. However, the actual configuration of the top floor has two rooms and one kitchenette. Which means that the owner altered the configuration of the home without pulling the proper permits and without changing the CofO, correct?

It is my understanding that in order to obtain a letter of no-harassment, the building has to be up to code as an SRO before the letter will be granted. Therefore, unless the owner restores the top floor to it’s legal configuration (in accordance with the CofO), he will not be granted a letter of no-harassment and might be fined for altering the SRO units without the proper DOB permits. Is this correct?

The owner communicated that getting the cert. of no-harassment would not be an issue; it is just a matter of getting through the application process. Based on what I’ve seen online, though, it looks like it will be a very complicated process because of the alteration to the legal configuration of the home. Am I right?

Has anyone gone through the process of securing a letter of no-harassment? Does the actual configuration have to match the CofO configuration in order to be granted the letter?

Thank you!

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 10 months ago

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Do you have a lawyer? If not, get one. And one who is familiar with Brooklyn real estate issues. You need to button down these issues in your contract. This is an issue that will cause you never ending headaches if it is not done properly. Do ot trust anything the seller tells you. It is not for the novice to research online or get advice online.I would suggest David Fainkich