Reversing upper and lower apartments requiring no work at all: legal to rent?
I own a 3-story, legal 2-family brownstone on a non-landmark block, always used as a legal 2-family, and I intend to always use it as a 2-family, and it has a Certificate of Occupancy as a 2-family. The setup has always been a lower duplex where I live (garden level completely above ground, plus a middle level parlor floor), with a rental apartment on the top floor (3rd floor). My top floor tenants are moving out, and I would like to take the opportunity to downsize, and live only on the garden level.
Without doing any construction or alteration work at all, since none would be necessary, as there are already separate entrances, can I just declare that the garden level (completely above grade) is now one apartment for me, and that the upper two floors are now one duplex apartment? I realize that I would need to have Con Ed redo the meters, and put the middle-floor electricity with the top floor instead of where it is now, with the first floor, unless I chose to just pay for the entire building’s electricity myself… Gas meters would not need to be changed, as the mi ddle floor does not have any gas appliances, only bedrooms and a bathroom, and nothing there will change at all. (There is also a completely accessible unfinished cellar where the mechanicals are located, along with storage space, and I am not intending to touch the cellar or change its use at all.) Since absolutely no construction work will be done whatsoever, no changes to egress, literally nothing, zero, can I legally rent out an “upper duplex” and live in the “garden level” in my 2-family house, even though the CofO from a minor 1960’s renovation says that the 2-family house consists of a lower duplex unit and a top floor unit? If it is necessary for me to change the CofO to make the new use legal, is this something that would be very simple and not expensive, since zero work is required? Or, would I need an architect to create plans, and an expediter to file them, and inspections by the DOB, in order to get a new CofO, even though not a single bit of renovations will be required? Without doing all of that, can I in the future legally rent out the garden level if I move? It does not seem to me that either of the units would be illegal, as absolutely nothing is changing in the slightest. I would not be carving an apartment out of anything by adding a kitchen, for example; I am not doing anything at all. I would just be letting an upstairs tenant have private use of the stoop entrance and 2nd floor hallway outside of the bedrooms; as it is now, we often meet in the 2nd floor hallway, outside of my bedrooms. Reversing the setup just makes so much sense. Thank you everybody.
elizabethJane
in General Discussion 8 years and 2 months ago
11
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11 replies
dorkofwindsor | 8 years and 2 months ago
If you are the illegal “tenant” then all the better. Don’t rent illegal space to a tenant, they may blackmail you. I’d say all is fine, if i am reading your post correctly.
dlaviano | 8 years and 2 months ago
There are a lot of things that would need to be clarified. Most importantly the stated use on the 2nd floor, as per your comments it does not seem as though any type “a” apartments are listed on that floor if there is no cooking equipment.
The DOB has implemented “Home Owners Night” i believe on tuesday evenings.
utoeid | 8 years and 2 months ago
Call the utilities and just change the names on the accounts. I did it and it was no problem. As long as you have a legal C of O, are not changing ANYTHING structurally, and you have egress and separate entrances, it should not really present a problem.
chemosphere | 8 years and 2 months ago
I agree that it is tragic that such a minor change needs to be a bureaucratic and expensive hassle. It is really to the detriment of the entire city that this is the case.
We are in a housing shortage right now and the original poster has the best of intentions – downsizing is exactly what the city needs. This frees up unused space in a dire market.
Once upon a time this sort of change was done easily and often. Unused spaces in brownstones in neighborhoods like Park Slope were turned into apts that everyone now cherishes. I can guarantee that in 1930 this didn’t cost the equivalent of $10,000 in architects plans and filing fees or $40,000 in a new sprinkler system.
Other cities in the midst of housing crises are trying to make adding units or adding space to existing units easier. The mayor of LA just said in an interview they are streamlining the process of adding an entirely detached accessory unit to backyards. Meanwhile NYC penalizes people for trying to downsize with no construction at all.
slopefarm | 8 years and 2 months ago
LOL. No, if you want blasphemy, go to the recesssed lighting thread. 😉
jimhillra | 8 years and 2 months ago
I’m closing my eyes, covering my ears and singing la la la la la so I don’t have to hear such blasphemy! Heathens!
daveinbedstuy | 8 years and 2 months ago
Yes, that was done in my house befor I bought it. Only issue was that the billing statement floor addresses didn’t perfectly coincide with what the reality was. No big deal.
slopefarm | 8 years and 2 months ago
Yeah, I would think Con Ed doesn’t touch where the power goes after the meters. Electrician would want to move the middle floor circuits to the other circuit box.
chemosphere | 8 years and 2 months ago
Wouldn’t an electrician just be able to rewire the middle floor to the other panel in the basement, without affecting the meters?
daveinbedstuy | 8 years and 2 months ago
Jimhillra is, of course correct. I’d just do what you want to do but you’d have to eat the electric bills because ConEd isn’t going to allow meters to be changed without the DOB filings and the new C of O.
jimhillra | 8 years and 2 months ago
Technically, you are changing the configuration of the units, and therefore probably changing egress. If the current setup allows you to go from the garden floor to the parlor floor without leaving what constitutes your apartment (meaning there’s no point at which you are in the public stair hall) then it’s hard to conceive how you could just reassign the parlor floor without making some physical change that affects how one exist from the top floor. A change in egress is grounds for a new C of O.
In addition, the change in dwelling unit allocation is also grounds for a new C of O, so technically, this should be filed. I’m an architect, so I’m telling you how the DOB will see this. It may not be the best course of action for you, and there are plenty of people who would say it’s not necessary, but this is how it relates to the code issues at hand.
Filing would include an architect or engineer drawing up the plans for every floor, exterior elevations of the front and rear, and any side if visible, as well as a section cut through the house. Any non code-compliant co nditions would have to be brought up to code, in some cases the code in effect when the building was built (if it predates code, we use the 1938 code), and in some cases the current code may apply.
A zoning analysis would need to be done to document whether or not the building meets current zoning. Chances are it does, and if it doesn’t, then conditions may be able to be grandfathered if you can prove they existed prior to 1961. You would need to get a land surveyor’s engineer to submit to the DOB with the zoning analysis.
If any work is to be performed, you would need an asbestos inspection, which could be $1,000, more or less depending upon what work needs to be done.
And then there’s the DOB filing fee, which could be a few hundred dollars to one or two thousand, again depending upon the amount of work.
All of this could easily run around $10,000 if there is little or no actual work to be done, and the architect/engineer is basically just documenting existing conditions.