user4474753's Advice

An update and a new question! The sellers' attorney has attempted to locate the CO at the Bx Dept. of Buildings, of course found nothing, whereupon - and here is the surprise - the title company declared it was now satisfied because houses built before 1938 did not require COs at the time, and we could go forward with the closing. Our attorney, who had previously advised us that buying a house without a CO would be a "nightmare" once we tried to sell it again, now says that everything is hunky-dory because the title company agrees with closing. We are rather gobsmacked at this sudden reversal. All we get now is a title company's opinion, no CO or any other document from the City. Does this sound good to the experts on this board? Thank you for any input!

Thank you so much for your response. In NYC (all boroughs), there is apparently no CE, the options are CO or Letter of No Objection. Our attorney says we (the buyers) cannot do anything, and he's probably right (and in any case it sounds like a huge amount of trouble!). But you seem to suggest that we could maybe hire an expediter and get this done on the sellers' behalf. We will definitely discuss this option with our attorney and with the sellers' agent. Thank you again.And if anyone else here has experience with this sort of process, I would still love to hear about it!

Our closing last week on a one-family in the Bronx blew up because it turned out at this last minute that the c/o referred to a neighboring property, not the one we were buying. It seems that the house, which was built in 1937 (one year before c/o's became mandatory) and has belonged to the same family for over 50 years, does not have a c/o. No c/o means no insurance, which means no mortgage... The sellers need to come up with a c/o now, but does anyone on this board have any idea of how long that might take and how much it might cost them? Would a "Letter of No Objection" from the Buildings Department be an acceptable alternative? Many thanks for your input!