The DOB — Its all about the Permit

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When I took possession of the house on February 6th, the previous owners had just pumped out 11,000 gallons of water, due to two burst pipes in the garden apartment. 

Being naive at the time I thought, "No sweat, I was going to demo the apartment anyway." Well there is demo and then, there is demo. The water damage was so severe that it meant taking it all the way down to the foundational brick — that's what's underneath the studs.

Well because the whole incident had triggered a visit from the Brooklyn Fire Department, calls to 311 and a formal complaint to the DOB, I received a surprise visit from the DOB two weeks later. By that time, I had removed everything from the inside including the offending pipes and all traces of bathrooms and appliances. 

In case you don't know either - THAT IS A NO-NO.

So the good fellows at the DOB issued me a citation and posted a Stop Work Order sign on the door of the Garden Apartment. Unfortunately, because the records were not updated, the violation was written out in the name of Tom Reitz, instead of mine, which caused all sorts of havoc when I finally had my hearing today. 

What my architect had depicted as a, "walk up to window three and pay your fine," ended up being a formal hearing with a very nice, but overworked judge — who works in a glass space and isn't allowed to shake hands, I guess because that is where corruption can start — with getting too friendly. There was also an attorney for the DOB — he was allowed to shake hands. Not only was I outgunned without any legal representation — I was in acronym hell, only catching only small amounts of understandable English, between and within their dispatches.

After 3 1/2 hours, we had successfully changed  the violation to the name of the Trust that is on the deed, proven that I and the Trust were one and the same and determined that the judge would render his verdict in 10 to 30 days.

Try as I might to gain same-day resolution — it wasn't going to happen. 

Flash forward two weeks and today I received the verdict. My name is spelled three different ways on the document (none of the spellings is correct), that basically says, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse," along with a decree that I had 10 days to pay a fine of $1,600 and then offering numerous ways this could be accomplished.

The fine sucks, but more importantly, paying the fine, still doesn't resolve the issue. I will still have to make another trip to the DOB, with my newly approved and minted permit, along with a notarized affidavit that I have said permit, a copy of my deed proving that the Trust owns the house and Trust documents proving that I am indeed  the Trust — all to prove that I not only paid the fine, but got a permit to address the issue.

When that is all done, we will truly be able to move on with our lives.

Here's the kicker — NYC charged me $39.95 for the privilege of taking my credit card payment on line. 

Seriously, there is no free lunch.