When Do You Need a Construction Permit for Your Apartment or House?
You need a construction permit when you construct, alter or change the use of the building or structure of the building. There are a lot of different types of permits that encompass construction, boiler, elevator and plumbing. To learn more about what type of permit you need continue reading below.
General Process of Obtaining a Permit
-Hire a licensed professional to file plans for building/construction changes and applications with the building department. A Licensed Professional can be either a Registered Architect or a Professional Engineer according to the City of New York.
-Once the plans have been filed with the Licensed Professional, a contractor may be hired and they must apply for a work permit.
-Once the contractor completes work you must arrange for one of two things. Either arrange to have the required Department inspections or complete trade self-certification.
-Once this process is complete the Department will let you know whether you need a New or an Amended Certificate of Occupancy.
While this process can seem relatively quick and easy it makes sense to have help when putting all of your ducks in order. What do you need first and what do you need from your licensed professional in order to begin work? The plans and permits must be filed prior to work beginning on the construction site. Consider enlisting the help of S&M Expediting when organizing all of your paperwork and plans for the filings.
What Type of Permit Do I Need?
There are a lot of different types of permits that encompass construction, boiler, elevator and plumbing. Of those types of permits the primary permit applications are: New Building, the construction of new structures, (NB) and Alterations Type-1, 2 and 3. The Alterations permits vary in the following way:
Alteration Type 1 (ALT1): is a major alteration that will change the use, egress or occupancy of the structure.
Alteration Type 2 (ALT2): includes multiple types of work that does not affect the use, egress or occupancy of the building structure.
Alteration Type 3 (ALT3): One specific type of minor work that does not affect the use, egress or occupancy of the building structure.
Are there instances when I will not need a permit?
There are some construction-related projects that are considered minor work and do not require a permit. However, there are some catches to the process when a permit is not required. For example, when you are installing kitchen cabinets into your home that does not necessarily require a permit, but the contractor completing the work must have a specific license in order to bypass the permit application.
How long does approval take?
The amount of time it takes to approve a plan directly relates to the number of objections a project reviewer might see in the plans and how easy it may be to resolve those objections.
Contact S&M Expediting for more information about whether your project requires a permit or not. They can also explain more about the different licenses that may come in handy to help you along with your permit process and how long you as a homeowner can expect the permit process to take.
