By Bruno Caligara In December 2018, the New York City Department of Buildings announced their plan for recovering outstanding fines. Under the authority of Local Law 160 of 2017, DOB will revoke active permits for buildings whose owners owe more than $25,000 in covered arrears. Applicable charges include unpaid fines, civil… View more
By Liliana Ovalles As of December 15, 2018, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) began stopping applications in the Buildings Information System (BIS) that conflict with information received from NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). Specifically, if HCR reports that a building contains at least one rent-regulated unit, owners… View more
By Penny Laughlin Planning to submit a Temporary Place of Assembly (TPA) for the annual holiday party? Check the date. As of December 10, 2018, all new TPA and Place of Assembly (PA) applications need to go through DOB NOW: Build. Place of Assembly Starting December 10, 2018, all new PA… View more
By George Crawford As previously reported, Local Law 84 of 2009 (LL 84)—the NYC Benchmarking Law—has expanded with the addition of Local Law 133 of 2016 (LL 133). Until now, energy and water benchmarking requirements were limited to buildings 50,000 square feet and larger. LL 133 has extended these requirements to buildings… View more
By Rose Perez Effective immediately, the Department of Buildings (DOB) requires licensed master plumbers (or a representative of their firm) to attend all inspections. This requirement applies to both physical DOB inspections and self-certifications. The department no longer accepts authorized representative letters. If a licensee cannot attend an inspection, an authorized… View more
By Andrew Pisani The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) recently expanded upon the requirements of Buildings Bulletin 2018-008. That bulletin, effective August 9, 2018, transferred responsibility for certain final inspections to registered design professionals (RDPs). Under Directive 14 of 1975, projects that do not require a new or modified… View more
By Rose Perez Last month, we covered the migration of limited alteration applications (LAAs) and emergency work notifications (EWNs) to DOB NOW: Build, the department’s online self-service platform. The changes started going into effect on October 2, 2018, and the questions began the same day. The tech team at the Department… View more