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Can I obtain a mortgage if it is my responsibility as a buyer to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy? I am fine spending the money to obtain the C and O even if I risk spending money on a house I do not get, but how would this logistically work?
Has the house been vacant for a long while? Does it need significant repairs to make it habitable? Otherwise, you should condition your offer on the Seller providing the Certificate of Occupancy. Many lenders will require the house to be habitable.
A lot of lenders won't give a mortgage on a home with missing COs. If you're asking can YOU get the CO on a house you don't own, you'd still need the sellers' involvement. Not sure why you would do that anyway.
It is possible to get a rehab loan (google 203k loan for gov't sponsored ones although backs may do their own too).
We looked at doing this and eventually backed out because there were a lot of restrictions on it as to how much money they would loan, to do the work yourself you had to provide proof that you were capable, you generally had to lay out the money yourself then get paid back, and the allowable timeline for repairs was not very long. Also on further checking it turned out the seller had gotten a permit for the addition but then did not follow the plans so much so that there was no way the building department would have ever issued a CO, we would have had to tear it down.
So the big question here is why hasn't the owner gotten a CO already? If they are selling as a rehab project that is one thing, but if they are not then I would wonder why they don't just do it themselves as it should then be easy (so if it's not, would the work even pass and how much money will it cost). It's hard to give advice without knowing more about the situation.
Has the house been vacant for a long while? Does it need significant repairs to make it habitable? Otherwise, you should condition your offer on the Seller providing the Certificate of Occupancy. Many lenders will require the house to be habitable.
Good point - the Seller providing the Certificate of Occupancy
OP saying your fine paying for the C of C - you are possibly opening yourself up to a lot of expenses the seller should be responsible for (not a wise move!!!)
My experience - the process is easy to have an inspection for certificate of occupancy, the problem is how long it takes to schedule the actual inspection.
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