DOB complaint/inspection

Hi there – found a few threads on this topic but all are now closed … woke up yesterday to a “notice for audit” from DOB taped to my door, says a complaint had been filed. Looked it up online and complaint for “work without a permit” was posted on July 24. We still have an open (albeit long expired!) Alt 1 permit from 2012 (very long story as to why we’ve not been able to close that…) but we haven’t done any interior work in years and no work at all since a new roof in May. Nothing whatsoever in July – and in fact we’re pretty much the only people on our stretch of block that ARENT doing work at the moment. So I have no idea what the complaint is about.

Am really worried b/c I know any time an inspector comes into your house, they will find *something,* otherwise it’s not worth their while. We’ve had so many instances in years past where inspector 1 comes and tells us to fix X, so we do – then inspector 2 comes back to check and says X isn’t what was needed, now we need to do Y, and so on and so on. Such a racket.

Any one else dealt with this? I know I will have to let them in at some point, but what, if any, rights do I have? Is this just how it always is in NYC – someone can make a fake anonymous complaint for any reason at any time, and your house has to be opened up to potentially tens of thousands of dollars of random work??

Sigh. Thanks in advance for any advice.
e

empathie00

in General Discussion 7 years and 10 months ago

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agdipierro

in General Discussion 7 years and 10 months ago

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Reinstate the application. Renew the permit. Get a temporary C/O

empathie00 | 7 years and 10 months ago

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Thanks Carmen, am in Manhattan so can try with the commissioner here (since project advocate has gone awol). No one wants this CO more than we do, I promise! 🙂 In other news, DOB inspector came by again very late last night and was really insistent so we finally let him in if for no other reason than to not alarm the neighbors… fortunately he ran through everything quickly, cleared us, and left. Phew 🙂

CarmenR | 7 years and 10 months ago

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Ira Gluckman is the Brooklyn Borough DOB commissioner. His email is IGluckman@buildings.nyc.gov Email him and explain the issue with the permits- someone from his office will likely get back to you. You also need a better expeditor. I would recommend ours (who we loved) but he only works for our GC.

empathie00 | 7 years and 10 months ago

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Thanks both, but just to clarify since it seems you think I’ve been blasé about this open permit: we have been working for *years* to close the permit, to no avail. We have an outstanding open electrical permit from the 1990s (long before we owned the house) and DOB won’t let us get our final CO until that permit is closed (everything else is done). We cannot locate the electrician who opened the permit; he may be deceased for all we know. Also, the work listed under that old elec permit (which was never actually done back when permit was opened – new service from street to house), *was* actually done ~2 years ago by ConEd, but ConEd won’t give us any paperwork indicating they did it. Multiple electricians that we’ve consulted won’t supersede the old permit since ConEd did the work, and have told us only option is for them to redo all the (brand new) work under their own permit, which will cost us tens of thousands of dollars and require street to be opened up again to redo work for absolutely zero reason. I have gone to DOB in person, called them countless times, lef t messages with project advocate’s office, called CBP for utility companies re: ConEd, etc etc etc. We’ve paid over $15K to an expediter who “only works on CO” so wont do anything else for us until we get the electrical permit issue resolved. So it’s not for lack of trying that our permit is still open. But it is why I am skeptical of DOB.

CarmenR | 7 years and 10 months ago

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> @empathie00
> Is this just how it always is in NYC – someone can make a fake anonymous complaint for any reason at any time, and your house has to be opened up to potentially tens of thousands of dollars of random work??

This isn’t how it “always is in NYC”, however is certainly can be when you don’t close out your permits. That’s literally the best protection you have.

resident2 | 7 years and 10 months ago

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You say you have a long expired open permit. The City does not like this and they are slowly looking into expired open permits.
You need to get a current permit and close it out. Not an easy task as it expired so long ago; but the sooner you start the process and keep on it, to get it closed the better.
Consult an expediter that specializes in Brooklyn (if it is Brooklyn) townhouses.

empathie00 | 7 years and 10 months ago

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Sorry – correction – not a notice for audit, it’s a notice to call for inspection.