How to Navigate the NYC DOB: Permits, Filings & DOB NOW

Your architect filed the plans six weeks ago. Every time you ask when the crew can start, the answer is the same: "we're waiting on the DOB." Then the status flips to "objections" one morning, and up pops a list of comments a plan examiner wants answered before anyone so much as touches a wall.

That's the New York City Department of Buildings. It decides whether your renovation is legal, and its rhythms throw almost everyone the first time through. Here's what the DOB does, how its DOB NOW filing portal works, when a job actually needs a permit, and how a filing crawls from submission to sign-off.

What the NYC DOB Actually Does

The DOB enforces the NYC Construction Codes, the Zoning Resolution, and the Energy Code across roughly a million buildings. For a homeowner, that boils down to three jobs. It approves your plans. It issues the permit that lets a contractor work legally. And it inspects the finished job and signs it off.

It also keeps the permanent record. Every legal apartment carries a Certificate of Occupancy, and every past permit and violation sits on file. Buyers, lenders, and co-op boards all pull that history. Work done off the books doesn't disappear; it surfaces at the worst possible moment, usually at closing.

DOB NOW vs. BIS: Which System Does What

Two systems, and New Yorkers mix them up constantly.

DOB NOW: Build is the current online portal. Your registered design professional files every new job, permit, and inspection request there, and you can log in to watch the status and see which objections are still open. The DOB NOW: Build page has the homeowner view.

BIS, the Building Information System, is the old platform. It still holds historical permits, complaints, violations, and Certificates of Occupancy from jobs filed before the switch. Rule of thumb: you file your project in DOB NOW, and you dig up an old property's records in BIS.

When You Need a Permit (and When You Don't)

The line is simpler than most people fear. Cosmetic work that doesn't touch a building system is usually exempt as an ordinary repair. Cross into plumbing, gas, electrical, or walls, and you need a permit. That's the whole test.

No permit needed (ordinary repairs):

• Painting, plastering, and wallpaper
• Tiling and refinishing or replacing flooring with similar material
• Replacing cabinets or a countertop without moving plumbing
• Swapping a faucet, toilet, or light fixture on existing lines

Permit needed:

• Moving or adding plumbing or gas piping
• New or relocated electrical (a separate electrical permit, pulled by a licensed electrician)
• Removing, adding, or relocating walls
• Relocating a kitchen or bathroom, or any change to use, egress, or occupancy

Two catches the exemption won't save you from. Home-improvement contractors still need a NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection license, permit or no permit. And your co-op or condo board can demand its own approval even when the DOB shrugs. When you're not sure which side of the line your job falls on, the official "Do I Need a Permit?" page is the reference.

The Main Filing Types

Once a permit is in play, your architect picks a filing type based on how deep the work cuts. These trace back to the classic Alt-1, Alt-2, and Alt-3 categories, now handled as job types inside DOB NOW.

Most apartment and townhouse renovations that need a permit are Alt-2 jobs. You're moving plumbing, electrical, and walls, but the apartment stays an apartment, so no new Certificate of Occupancy is required. You only climb up to an Alt-CO when the building's legal use changes, and that road runs longer and costs more.

Architects, Self-Certification, and Objections

You can't file with the DOB yourself. The city requires a registered design professional (RDP), meaning a licensed architect (RA) or professional engineer (PE), to prepare and file the plans for any permit work.

From there the filing takes one of two routes. In a standard plan examination, a DOB plan examiner reads the drawings against code and zoning and fires back objections your architect has to clear before approval. Objections are routine. Almost every filing collects a few. Under professional certification, the architect or engineer instead attests that the plans comply and the DOB waves off the full review. Faster, yes, but the city can pull the job for a random audit later, so professionals save self-cert for the clean ones.

When a filing stalls, it's almost always an unanswered objection, a missing document, or an amendment big enough that the examiner sends you back to refile. Knowing which item is open and whose court the ball sits in is half the fight. That's the status Archie tracks for you. CC him on the thread with your architect and he follows the filing's state and its deadlines, so "we're waiting on the DOB" becomes a specific next step.

From Permit to Sign-Off

Once the plans clear, the sequence runs the same in every borough:

1. Permit issued. The DOB grants the work permit and construction can legally begin.
2. Construction and inspections. Required inspections happen along the way, and each trade (plumbing, electrical) gets its own sign-off.
3. Final inspection. Once work is done, a final inspection confirms it matches the approved drawings and the code.
4. Sign-off. The DOB issues a Letter of Completion for an Alt-2, or a new or amended Certificate of Occupancy for an Alt-CO.

That final document closes the job on the record. Skip it and the property carries an open permit indefinitely, and that open permit comes back to bite the next sale or refinance.

NYC Building Permit Fees, Timelines, and Expediters

The DOB's own fees are pocket change next to the construction bill. The base building permit fee starts at a $130 minimum for the first $5,000 of work, then adds roughly $13 per additional $1,000 of estimated cost, so a typical apartment renovation lands somewhere in the hundreds to low thousands. Your architect's fee to draw and file the job is separate, and it's usually the bigger number.

Timelines run wide. An Alt-3 might clear in 2 to 4 weeks, an Alt-2 in 4 to 8 weeks (faster with professional certification), and an Alt-CO in 8 to 16 weeks or more. Objections and board approvals stretch every one of those. This is where an expediter, a filing representative who works the DOB and answers objections fast, earns their keep. Your architect can walk a clean Alt-2 through alone. On a complex or stalled job, an expediter's few-thousand-dollar fee pays for itself.

Violations Worth Knowing About

The DOB hands out two flavors of trouble. A DOB violation is a code or filing issue logged on the record. An ECB violation piles on a fine and a hearing at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, with penalties from a couple hundred dollars up to $25,000 or more for immediately hazardous conditions. Working without a required permit is the classic way a homeowner lands one, and the cleanest argument for filing right the first time.

FAQ: Navigating the NYC DOB