What Can Happen If You Renovate Your NYC Home Without a Permit

1. What Can Happen If You Renovate Your NYC Home Without a Permit

2. Renovating your home without having gained the necessary permission from local building authorities, is likely to land you in hot water, and isn’t something any professional renovator would recommend. Safeguarding you both legally and financially, permits are essential for some renovation projects, and not required for others. However, it’s essential that you find out if your project needs one, before any work is carried out. What can happen if you don’t have the required permits? Getting caught renovating your NYC home without a permit from the DOB, may result in any (or more than one) of the following:

3. You’ll have to pay a fine ● While fines depend upon the scope of your project and subsequent violations, it’s entirely possible that both you and your general contractor will receive fines. The project may be stopped or even demolished ● In the worst case scenario, your project may have to be demolished; if you’re lucky, the project will simply be put on hold until you gain the necessary permit.

4. Your homeowner’s insurance may be voided ● If you renovated your home without a permit and some damage occurred, such as an electrical fire or someone slipped and fell, your homeowner’s insurance company may deny your claim when you try to file it. You might not be able to get proper appraisals ● For refinancing your home, you’ll need an appraisal, but if any part of your renovation project isn’t up to code, it won’t be included in the square footage stated in your home’s listing. If your home hasn’t been properly appraised due to the above issue, you’ll find it hard to get a loan equal to the actual value of your home.

5. Future buyers may be deterred ● When you want to sell your home, the seller must disclose any remodeling projects to potential buyers, and if they find out that work was carried out without a permit, they may be scared off and no longer be interested in buying. Not only that, but interested buyers might believe that because you didn’t bother getting permits, the workmanship must in some way be shoddy, and they may be worried about future repairs that may be needed. If a buyer is still interested in your home, however, you might be required by law to retroactively obtain the necessary permits before being allowed to go ahead with the sale.

6. In short, you might not need a permit for your NYC renovation project, but you must always find out before going ahead with it. Foregoing this procedure simply isn’t worth the headache and cost further down the line, and for more guidance on obtaining permits, you can chat informally with a local construction company.

7. RZ Construction Group Inc is a fully inclusive and one of the best construction companies in Queens NY. From initial design to final clean up, our results speak for themselves. We are fully licensed, insured, and bonded to provide both commercial and residential construction services to customers in Queens and the surrounding area. We also offer building violation removal in Queens. Proud to serve New York State for 25 years. No job is too small nor too big. If you are looking for basement violation removal contractors in Queens NY or want to know more about our wide range of professional but affordable construction and repair services, reach out to us at (718) 938-9887.