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Your house has an Accessory Apartment, it is not a Legal Two Family by CO. Apartments are renewable, Two Family by CO is just that, its stated on the CO and does not have to have the periodic renewal or inspections.
When you file for the Accessory Apartment and the Town of Babylon comes for the inspection, the basement is part of the routine inspection.
What is your Basement finished into? The parts of the duct work and basement girder that stick down are permitted by the code as long as they are less than a certain percent of the area. Bedrooms in the basement are not allowed. They will let Storage, a Rec room, bathroom, Laundry area.... They will allow a den as long as you have a secondary means of egress.
When you closed on the house, you should have received copies of all the CO's that were issued but as others have stated, a CO for a finished basement is probably not there. No one files for them unless they have to.
Your problem can be fixed. I am an expediter. I know it can be done. Not trying to solicit for the job. Just trying to give insight...
Homes with legal accessory apartments in the Town of Babylon are usually listed as "legal 2". "Actual" legal 2-family homes are listed as "legal 2 by CO". Confusing not only to buyers, but often also to "uninitiated" agents
Unless an agent specifically suggests, or a buyer specifically requests, buyer agency, and both parties agree, the agent will generally act as "broker agent" - and therefore represent the seller in the negotiations, etc. Let's call it the "default" representation
When buyer agency is preferred, it is common for buyers and buyer agent to also execute a separate, written, exclusive buyer agency agreement, wherein the buyers agree to use that particular agent exclusively; any limitation with regard to this exclusivity is specifically spelled out.
I don't remember what we signed with it being nearly 8 years ago, our realtor certainly acted at a minimum neutral in the negotiations. I even remember him not giving us much advice at all on how low under the asking price he thought we should bid. If I have any legal recourse against anyone, I would expect it to be against our own attorney and the seller. But, that's extremely far fetched based on what I understand about civil suits for misrepresentation in NY. Not only does the misrepresentation have to be deliberate, but it has to be something that can't be found out by normal investigation.
I'm not a lawyer, but this seems to almost certainly rule out taking action against the seller or their broker, since I can go read the town code and find out whether a basement is legal. Of course, this is precisely what I would've expected my attorney to do for me, and she understood in no uncertain terms what we were looking for when we bought the house. At least now I know, next time I buy a house, I'm verifying everything directly.
I disagree that the town is not being at the very least deliberately obtuse in the matter, especially when providing out of date checklists and workers refusing to comply with a simple request to give us ALL the paperwork on file for the property. Sure, the inspector shouldn't approve anything not up to code, but then to refuse to answer questions about what needs to be done and in the same breath, refer to the other town workers saying, "they should've told you..." as he said several times when I asked him questions is not useful in resolving anything. From my perspective, "they" are the town, and he is representing the town, as are the other unhelpful people.
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Step 1 is to get over it. It's David against Goliath. They don't even know the rules and will change them at any time when it suits them or something scares them. Our inspector gave our GC a hard time about the insulation he installed even though it was what the code said. He was in a bad mood and he could hassle him so he did. Same thing happened to me here in NC - our town inspector directed our GC to do something. Our GC carried around the code book with him and asked the inspector to find it in the code. Inspector couldn't find it but insisted GC do it anyway. What are you gonna do? YOU ARE AT THEIR MERCY. Don't forget it.
I bet if you do most of the big work they will let some stuff slide. Like the egress window, that's a biggie. About $3500 is what we paid. Aside from that the advice to hire an expeditor is good.
Your house has an Accessory Apartment, it is not a Legal Two Family by CO. Apartments are renewable, Two Family by CO is just that, its stated on the CO and does not have to have the periodic renewal or inspections.
I don't have an Accessory Apartment. I have a specific CO that says it is a 2 family home. In fact, this even confused the listing agent we tried to use for the rental. Initially, she provided the paperwork for an accessory apartment and I had to explain that we definitely have a legal two family home. It's on the CO, it's on our property tax statement (tax code type 224), and it involves a different, more limited set of items on the checklist for the rental permit.
Again, this is the center of my frustration. The town has no issue with the second unit. It's been that way by CO since 1969. They won't issue a permit to legally rent the separate apartment because the basement in the area of the house I live in doesn't have a CO. I'm living there regardless of whether a tenant lives in the second unit and even the inspector told me the main problem (though there were others) was egress if we get trapped down there, again no concerns about any safety issues for the tenant.
I bet if you do most of the big work they will let some stuff slide. Like the egress window, that's a biggie. About $3500 is what we paid. Aside from that the advice to hire an expeditor is good.
Yes, that's what I'm hoping for. I talked to the guy who has done other work on my house and he said an egress would be somewhere in the ballpark of $3000. I am looking into expediters as well so if I can get plans filed and approved with the egress window, maybe taking a door frame out so nothing "looks like a bedroom" and upgrading the electric, I'd be happy to get out of this for 6 or 7 grand.
You are right though about being at their mercy. There's plenty of lip service paid to addressing the illegal apartment problem, but if this is the headache people go through, it's no wonder 90% of the stuff on Long Island gets done with no paperwork.
I didn't even read your whole post. It's too long. Paragraphs are your friend. Why were you having the town come in if the apartment already legal to your knowledge when you bought the home?
. I can pretty much assure you that someone who finished the basement in the 1960s didn't get permit. For whatever reason you let the guy in your basement (or even in your house at all, since you thought you were legal when you bought the house) you've now bought yourself a world of trouble.
Get yourself an architect to tell you exactly what you need and draw the plans. The town can't keep info on your house from you either. If you want to see the whole history of your house, file a FOIL request.
Where do you get off posting an answer like this? You didn't even read the whole post? Lol, who do you think you are? Why bother providing your spin on things? You don't care enough about the subject to even bother reading the OP because you felt the post was to long? and you have the nerve to tell the guy. Just keep spouting off.
Where do you get off posting an answer like this? You didn't even read the whole post? Lol, who do you think you are? Why bother providing your spin on things? You don't care enough about the subject to even bother reading the OP because you felt the post was to long? and you have the nerve to tell the guy. Just keep spouting off.
Thanks, I ignored the initial snark. There were several paragraphs there, perhaps the last one reads a bit long if you're on a mobile device. I'll try to remember in the future to follow the twitter standard of 140 characters per post.
Yes, that's what I'm hoping for. I talked to the guy who has done other work on my house and he said an egress would be somewhere in the ballpark of $3000. I am looking into expediters as well so if I can get plans filed and approved with the egress window, maybe taking a door frame out so nothing "looks like a bedroom" and upgrading the electric, I'd be happy to get out of this for 6 or 7 grand.
You are right though about being at their mercy. There's plenty of lip service paid to addressing the illegal apartment problem, but if this is the headache people go through, it's no wonder 90% of the stuff on Long Island gets done with no paperwork.
We had to get a CO for our basement when we moved (like you, it had been finished long before we ever bought the house). There was a lot of stuff down there that probably wasn't up to code. But, we did the big stuff and the inspector let a lot of stuff slide. Just try to keep your patience through the process. If you get an expeditor in this case it will probably help.
Also the electrical is usually a separate inspection. My town used a company CEI, they are on contract with a lot of LI towns. VERY easy to work with. If it's the same situation for you, consider having them come out to do an initial assessment. There were things my buyers asked for after their inspection report that were actually the opposite of code so it was helpful to have CEI look at it first.
I don't have an Accessory Apartment. I have a specific CO that says it is a 2 family home. In fact, this even confused the listing agent we tried to use for the rental. Initially, she provided the paperwork for an accessory apartment and I had to explain that we definitely have a legal two family home. It's on the CO, it's on our property tax statement (tax code type 224), and it involves a different, more limited set of items on the checklist for the rental permit.
Again, this is the center of my frustration. The town has no issue with the second unit. It's been that way by CO since 1969. They won't issue a permit to legally rent the separate apartment because the basement in the area of the house I live in doesn't have a CO. I'm living there regardless of whether a tenant lives in the second unit and even the inspector told me the main problem (though there were others) was egress if we get trapped down there, again no concerns about any safety issues for the tenant.
Since true two-families by C.O. are a rarity, I am sorry I assumed it was an Accessory Apartment.
Like someone else stated, the big thing is egress and safety. Do the big things, the little things will probably not be an issue but they never let egress slip thru a crack.
Dealing with the Towns can be a real test of patience. Don't let them get to you.
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spouting off.
