I did a post a while back about how we got two violations, then they appeared as ‘resolved’ but the stop work order on which they were based was still in effect. Well, clearing that nightmare has been a VERY long, arduous, and inane process.

The short(ish) version was that the architect’s expediter was told by someone at the DOB that we could not renew/extend the previous owner’s approved plans to convert the building to 2 family – that that job had had completely expired and was dead. Well, that was wrong. During the 5 months plan review process no one at DOB told us that getting a second “Alt-1” would cause problems. Even when the plans were approved it didn’t set off any alarm bells. No, DOB waited until we pulled permits and wanted to start work to give a FULL stop work order. We can’t even put up a new construction fence when our current one is deemed a violation and ‘unsafe’.

Then the fun began. If you look on the DOB website the violations literally have no explanation. Here are screenshots of them…

How do you deal with a violation when they won’t tell you what’s wrong? The papers they put on our building simply said “failure to provide information on job ###”. What in in the ?@#$ does that mean? What information?

What the inspector should have put was that we failed to close the first job before starting the second job. The issue is that they need to do an inspection to know what was done under the first job so they know how to properly evaluate the second job. See? Put that way it all makes sense. The inspector could/should have put “failure to have final inspection of job ### before starting job ###.” THAT would have made a total sense. I still think it would have been nice for someone at the DOB to know that the we should work under the first job number or at least warn us to close it before starting the 2nd job number.

Anyway, it took a while to figure out what the problem was (because the inspector didn’t give us adequate information). We actually had to fire one expediter who couldn’t figure it out and hire another one. The new expediter met with the borough commissioner to try to get an exemption but was unsuccessful. However she did get an inspection a few days later (instead of a few weeks later) – that was supposed to speed up the process. The inspector came, and then we had to wait over a week for him to file his report. Then we were told it was up to the borough commissioner to review the report and take care of things. We waited and waited and finally got impatient. Just when we were about to go see the borough commissioner ourselves our expediter went in and as of Tuesday the old job is formally withdrawn.

But, you guessed right… That’s still not the end of it… Now the fact that the job is withdrawn has to be passed over to the construction unit who needs to dismiss the violations and lift the stop work order. That’s supposed to be done by the end of the week. We’ll see.

This is just ridiculous… Two and a half months to clear up something that never should have happened in the first place. Only the DOB is at fault here. They gave us the wrong information and then then never warned us of a problem despite seeing us several times over many months. You shouldn’t be able to apply for a second Alt-1 until you’ve closed the first one. It shouldn’t blow up right when you want to start construction – that’s the absolute worst time for it to happen.

Who knows what else they haven’t told us and how much time and money that will cost…

I gotta say I hate the DOB. If you look around Harlem and wonder why there are so many derelict buildings – they’re part of the reason. They should be helping people like us, not making it so incredibly difficult. We’re trying to do things by the book, but they keep changing the words on the page as we’re reading it.

Hopefully it will get resolved this week and we’ll be able to start construction first thing next week… Hopefully…

There are a few minor changes that we need to get signed off by DOB. For example, when Peter Holtzman was kind enough to look over our plans he noticed the plan examiner hadn’t caught the fact that we were exhausting things like bathroom vents and dryer vents over the property line (not allowed). So we’re planning to vent everything through the roof or rear wall and need to get that approved. Also, as the plan examiner was stamping our plans he noticed we needed changes to the size of our bulkhead – the walkway next to it didn’t meet “side yard” zoning requirements. He was kind enough to tell us to just come back and fix it when we put in a PAA. And we had changed a bathtub to a shower (two changes – one to delete the tub, another to add the shower), etc. So all in all minor stuff, but it seems little details can trip you up with the DOB, so we wanted to get them approved to avoid problems.

Our architect’s expediter filed the PAA (Post Approval Amendment) on 18 February and we were scheduled for a meeting a little over two weeks later – on 7 march. But that meeting was canceled for some reason and rescheduled for 4 May – that’s right – almost 3 months after we initially filed the PAA.

I was watching Holmes Inspection last night on HGTV and at one point he saw a problem and said “oh, we’ll need to pull a permit for that”. The next day he had his permit and they were on their way. That’s how things should work, but 3 months to get some little changes approved? It’s craziness.

I can sorta understand why the initial plan approval takes a while, but 3 months for a post approval amendment? Please… If you see something during construction that warrants a PAA that means you could have a 3 month delay (or more). And what if we don’t get the PAA approved? That’s a horror I don’t want to think about.

It’s no wonder people get in trouble with the DOB. They have little issues they need approval for, but they can’t get the feedback in a timely manner so they have to choose between a major delay or going ahead and doing something that hasn’t been approved.

Apparently the current system is better than the old one. I think the current system is broken. I can’t imagine what it used to be like. This isn’t just theoretical. It hurts homeowners and makes it more difficult to fix up blighted buildings in our communities.

On top of everything else we can’t even try to get an earlier appointment without first canceling our current appointment. If one isn’t available, then we could be pushed back even further. The expediter risked a later appointment today by calling, canceling, and trying to get an earlier one. Luckily when they said ‘no’ to an earlier one he was able to rebook the original appointment. But it was possible another caller could have gotten his original slot while he was figuring out no earlier ones were available.

Here are a few things I can think of that would make the DOB process better. Admittedly some are easier said than done…

• Hire more staff and get things processed more quickly.
• During the approval process allocate sufficient time to completely review the plans the first time. After the full review, anything that was not brought up as an objection shouldn’t be able to result in a rejection unless there are other unresolved issues or it’s a serious safety issue. However, put them in as conditions that must be resolved in the first PAA. That will let work start and issues be dealt with later.
• Have a check list for the construction process similar to the approval process. Anything that’s not on the list, and not an immediate safety issue, shouldn’t ever result in a stop work order.
• Have a separate unit in the Manhattan DOB that only deals with buildings under 100,000 sq. ft. (or maybe 50,000 sq. ft.). Do a little more hand holding with these projects so these little projects don’t get mired in bureaucracy.
• Give inspectors more latitude to be lenient with little things that are not safety issues. Things like changing a bathtub to a shower or adding a second dishwasher shouldn’t require approval by a plan examiner. The inspector should be able to overlook an unlimited number of items like that – or just note that additional fees need to be paid, if they affect filing fees.

But of course, all of that is a pipe dream. In the mean time, dealing with the DOB is the one thing that seriously worries me about our project. I’m scared something little and unintentional will turn out being incredibly costly for no good reason.