3 Family to 4

Hi, My wife and I are looking at buying a brownstone in a historic zone that is officially a 3 family. However, previous owners (maybe 2 owners back) set it up as a 4 family without the proper approvals. Assuming that it is up to code for a 4 family layout (it currently has sprinklers, 4 separate electric meters, etc.), what would be the process to legally convert it to 4 family? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Would this be fairly easy (inexpensive) to do if most of the structural work is already done? Thanks, Jeremy

jp1234

in Zoning 13 years and 10 months ago

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housepoor | 12 years and 7 months ago

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Are the sprinklers throughout the house or just in the hallways? In theory, the DOB and NYFD may require full house sprinklers.

jp1234 | 13 years and 10 months ago

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What’s the filing fee to the dob? Also, for financing, what is considered okay…if seller removes the kitchen?

adam_dahill | 13 years and 10 months ago

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It would need to be changed back to a 4 fam prior to you closing on the mortgage. The bank is not going to let you close with an illegal apartment. The seller’s need to finalize that work.

dazednconfused2 | 13 years and 10 months ago

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Oh, and as for accessibility, that only applies to the lowest floor in a walk-up.

dazednconfused2 | 13 years and 10 months ago

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For the most part, it could be pretty simple. Most likely the biggest issue will be making sure each of the four apartments has a fire rated separation from the hallway. Typically the old brownstone multi-family layouts have 2 or 3 doors from each apartment to the stair hall, and technically they should be 1 hour fire rated, but almost never are. However, you may be inheriting a violation for work without a permit. In a building with more than 2 families, that could be $5,000 to the ECB and 14 times the filing fee to the DOB. This can be a lot. Because you would be buying the building and filing to voluntarily correct the violation, you may be able to get out of some of those fines, but I wouldn’t go into this unless I had the money to pay them if needed. Jim Hill, RA, LEED AP Urban Pioneering Architecture Of course you’ll be getting a new c of o, so you’ll have to make sure the rest of the building is up to code. Depending upon what other work was done without a permit, you might have to do some work to get it there.

fastfreddy | 13 years and 10 months ago

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Not sure what the answer to this is but I would also make sure you check on the tax and insurance consequences of switching to 4 family. could make both those things more expensive. also maybe issues like wheelchair access and that kind of thing?