Old open permit on condo - who is responsible and how to close it?

I purchased a condo in 2010 and recently put it up for sale. During the process an open permit dating from 2006 (for bathroom renovation) showed up – it was never closed and was not discovered when I purchased.

The permit was for a bathroom renovation in the unit but was a “self inspection” and was never closed, i looked into the architect on record and plumber and both are out of business.

How do I go along closing this permit? I have reached out to expeditor who suggest refiling a new permit, pay fines, get a new inspection and when new permit is closed ask for the old permit to be closed. Based on his estimate I am looking at $15,000 for what amount to opening walls, re-tiling etc…

From my understanding I have no recourse against seller, title company…etc and will be on my own.

Anybody has gone through this? What is the best way to resolve such an issue?

Guest User | 9 years and 9 months ago

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xprometheusx | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Hello howdoin, this project could be superseded by a new engineer/architect in order to sign off the job. There is a diminishing returns of how much it affects property value vs. how much it would cost to resolve yourself. Brokers typically don’t want buyers to know about this stuff unless negotiating on a lower price. Our website has info on sign-offs and applicant services, call today for an estimate. Direct Access Expediting.

xprometheusx | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Hello howdoin, this project could be superseded by a new engineer/architect in order to sign off the job. There is a diminishing returns of how much it affects property value vs. how much it would cost to resolve yourself. Brokers typically don’t want buyers to know about this stuff unless negotiating on a lower price. Our website has info on sign-offs and applicant services, call today for an estimate. Direct Access Expediting.

bk123 | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Call Dave 914-693-1159….may be able to do for a reasonable cost.

Guest User | 9 years and 9 months ago

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thank you for the input @empathie00 – not sure how we will resolve this for now but not looking forward to spend $$ I don’t have to fix the issue. It is quite frustrating to hire lawyers, title companes…etc. to guide you through a process you are not familiar with, just to find out they did not do their job properly yet have no liability.

empathie00 | 9 years and 9 months ago

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I feel your pain – we’ve had similar issues – see my question from yesterday about an old open electrical permit. There were many others old permits and violations, etc. that occurred as many as 30 years before we bought the house that weren’t found by our RE lawyer, title Co., etc. Of course the lawyer just stopped responding to any communications from us and title company claimed it’s not their job – the fines, etc. were in the $ range of what you’re talking about, if not more – no one could really give me any advice – I even wrote to the NYTimes RE question person and they published the response which basically said “you should have found this before you bought and since you didn’t, there’s nothing you can do about it now but pay everything.” 🙁

On the other side, I also had my parent’s house in MI reno’d prior to sale, and it turned out when I went to sell that the contractor I hired hadn’t pulled the proper permits and therefore there weren’t proper inspections. City said I had to open up all the walls etc (this was a whole house!!) to allow for the inspections .. .contractor of course refused to do it, refused to admit fault, etc. and was a nightmare …but ultimately with the help of a lawyer, we created a “release and indemnification” document that the contractors DID sign (under threat of lawsuit) basically stating they did all the work correctly but acknowledging it wasn’t inspected – and saying neither I nor the City are at fault for not inspecting, if anything goes wrong in the future. Who knows if this would actually hold up if it were ever tested, but it was good enough for the City to issue the CO and allow me to sell the house. Of course I also had to disclose it to the buyers, but luckily that wasn’t an issue for them.

Again, this was in a different state and not sure NY has the same laws (the DoB I was working with in MI was MUCH friendlier than here!!!!), but maybe worth asking a lawyer here if there is this middle ground option.

Really sorry you have to deal with this too, and good luck!!!!