After purchasing your dream apartment comes the renovation. Navigating a renovation in co-ops and condos can be either exciting or excruciating, and sometimes both. First step is understanding your alteration agreement to understand the process.
Understanding the alteration process and navigating board requirements to ensure compliance with both building and city regulations are critical to a successful project. Experienced New Yorkers may even join the board to make the process less painful.
Of my more than a decade of experience, I have been mostly on the reviewing side of alterations, but I also have worked with owners renovating. This guide breaks down the steps to your renovation journey, and also provides some quirky hacks.
Key Takeaways
- Plan ahead to understand alteration guidelines
- Hire the right team
- Keep momentum and push through to completion
1. Understanding the Alteration Agreement
Before embarking on any renovation, review your building’s alteration agreement. This document outlines the rules, requirements, and approval process specific to your co-op or condo. Key points typically covered include:
- Scope of Work: What types of renovations require city filings compared to aesthetic renovations that only need board approval to commence. This can save months in both building review and city review if it is not considered major work needing city permits.
- Insurance: Study this part and make sure all vendors have require coverage. This is gotten very tedious in the last few years and as soon as vendors are chosen, make sure the information is sent to the board and management for vetting.
- Fees & Deposits: Make sure you understand all building management/reviewing architect fees and deposit(s). Also, understand when these fees are triggered and how to get deposits back.
- Timelines: Understand what triggers the project start date, how days are counted, and what is considered complete. Many buildings have large daily, weekly, or monthly fees when exceeding the renovation timeline.
Hack: Join the board to ensure that you aren’t proposing anything on their pet peeve list. Also, helps grease the approval wheels.
2. Engage the Right Professionals
Hire competent and experienced architects, engineers, or contractors not only familiar with NYC building codes but also working in co-op & condos.
The right professionals know how to:
- Read and understand alteration guidelines to propose an approvable scope of work.
- Identify all needed permits and filings. Sometime you see proposals to change egress and doors, which usually requires a more comprehensive filing. These types of proposals always sends up red flags.
- Communicate with board and professionals. There are a subset of architects that think that since they sold their client on a steam shower or something else not approvable that they can win approval by rapid fire email or calls. This does not work and adds pain when none is needed.
Hack: If you aren’t married to a professional, consider hiring the building’s reviewing architect. You can always hire a designer to work with the filing architect. Some building architects take on the work others decline, but it’s worth a shot to breeze through the review and renovation. Alternatively, request a list of preferred vendors, either the building or management should have a list of pre-vetted professionals.
3. Submit Your Plans for Approval
When the plans and specs are ready, submit to the board or management company. There is usually some lead time associated with the review and the package then becomes a negotiation.
The approval process often looks like this:
- Review by Consultants: Building consultants review architectural and engineering drawings to identify missing items, request removal of non-approvable elements, and clarify questionable inclusions.
- Negotiations: Boards may request revisions to align with building standards, or they may grant an exception with an assumption of liability.
- Approval: There is never an ultimate approval. The scope is typically only partially approved, as the drawings are conceptual and often require additional forms/details during permitting, construction documentation, and closeout paperwork.
Hack: Give ample runway for a review, but tear a page out of Danny Meyer’s playbook and apply constant gentle pressure. Reviewing architects are notorious for having a god complex, so getting aggressive over timing of plan reviews or items that need clarification will only make it worse.
4. Secure Necessary Permits
If you are doing anything beyond aesthetics in your scope, it will require filings and permits with the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB). Now clock is ticking to start your reno. This requires that all your consultants are filing with the right agency in a timely manner.
Typical filings and permits include:
- Architectural filings for general construction permit.
- Electrical and/or plumbing permits
- Structural filing for structural work type and permit
- Change of Use (not common), but if you are required to do this for an uncommon situation, consultant design professional and possibly building code specialist.
Hack: If it fits within your budget, now is the time to engage an owner’s representative to manage the process and push all parties. An owner’s representative typically costs 6-10% of total construction costs, but their expertise in management and construction process can save you significant headaches and money. They will hold vendors accountable, provide market insights on pricing and change orders, and help reduce delays, which will ultimately save both time and money.
5. Plan for Building Inspections
Most building’s mandate inspections at key milestones to protect the building infrastructure and make sure there aren’t deviations from the plans. These inspections are usually performed by the building reviewing architect or documented by your contractor or professionals. Oftentimes the inspections are only partially performed, and when there is a problem the finger pointing begins.
This is not an exhaustive list, but examples include:
- Waterproofing: Make sure the wet over dry foot print is maintained. Confirm all showers and/or required wet areas have the proper waterproofing.
- Window Installations: Typically buildings have standards that need to be followed.
- Final Walkthrough: Verifying that the completed project doesn’t substantially deviate from the original approved plans.
Hack: Schedule a kick-off meeting in advance of any work with all parties, and make sure the reviewing architect is there. Then send a follow up email memorializing contact person and noticed period needed in advance of inspections.
7. Ensure Proper Closeout
Once the renovation work is complete, most buildings require restoration of building property (elevator, service hallway, etc) and permit sign-offs in advance of a deposit refund.
This process usually includes:
- Requesting punch list from building management.
- Submitting permit sign-offs and inspection reports.
- Resolving any open issues with the board.
- Returning deposits held by the building.
Hack: Make sure all of your vendors are paid onetime through the project and make sure they are up to date when entering the sign-off phase. Then make it clear that final payments are contingent on having sign-off in hand. Also, in your contract with your general contractor make sure there are provisions to repaint service hallway, clean elevator, and restore any other building space used.
By following these steps and staying organized, you can navigate the alteration process smoothly for a successful reno.
Final Hack: If appropriate, request that your building starts using a platform to streamline the process. Some buildings I work with have adopted iNBuilt Solution, a tool specifically designed for alteration management. It helps keep everyone aligned and reduces many common pain points. While iNBuilt is the only software I know of tailored for this process, using any system that reduces emails and centralizes communication will save time, money, and stress.