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February 4, 2005
Certificate on Non Harassment, Finally!
We had a huge breakthrough this week: After almost seven friggin' months we finally got our Certificate of Non Harassment from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). What a joke the whole process is--riddled with human incompetence and bureaucratic strangles. We understand why the process exists--to protect the rights of poor tenants--but we think the system needs a major overhaul. We have heard of people buying empty shells that were formerly SRO's who end up spending countless months wading through the paperwork. In our case, most of the former tenants were drug dealers (one of whom held up our neighbor at gun point a couple of years ago). Given that there are well over a hundred case files in the pipeline at any time, the Department is woefully understaffed: There is one inspector for all five boroughs and one person responsible for managing the paper work flow. If they are going to keep this system in place--and we've heard rumors that a revamping is in the works--they should increase the application fee from $150 and hire some more people. Someone who's bought a $1 million home and is burning up $5,000 a month in carrying costs would be willing to pay a significant amount of money to expedite the process. Alright, enough ranting. Here are some photos that preserve the legacy of the house's former life as a single room occupancy residence--an old sticker with occupancy regulations and some graffiti in a parlor floor closet.
Posted by brownstoner at February 4, 2005 9:57 AM
how long from start to finish did it take to get the cert.
Posted by: electricgreek1 at February 4, 2005 1:39 PM
help me out: what's a certificate of non-harassment?
btw - anyone know how to eliminate a building's hpd status after paying off an hpd loan?
Posted by: 9000 at February 4, 2005 1:58 PM
The seller filed the application in June. It was returned to her in August because she filled it out wrong. We bought the house in September, got the inspection in December, and it was granted last week. All this despite of pulling some strings to apply pressure to speed up the process. Can't imagine how long it would have taken with no one looking out for us.
Posted by: Brownstoner at February 4, 2005 2:08 PM
Sounds much like to Certificate of Occupancy process - only shorter, cheaper, and far more efficient - LOL
Posted by: BigBubba at February 7, 2005 10:52 AM
Hello,
I read the travails of someone's application for no harassment certifiate and was wondering if any of you would be kind enough to share some of your experiences with me. I bought an SRO and filed for the certificate in January. The inspector finally showed up the last week of April. Ask how soon will the certificate be issued, his response was the investigation is ongoing and the attorneys will review his report and render a decision. He was barely at the premise for five minutes, spoke to two tenants, asking whether there had been interruption of services to which the tenants answered no.
It is costing me $6000 a month and while I will never break the law I'd rather get that CofNH soon, rather than later, so I can assisist the remaining (some tenants have already left) tenants with relocation.
There's reference in one person's account to "pulled strings and applied pressure." Since one is specifically discouraged from calling for update, any suggestion anyone has as to how to help the process along, given that they are grossly understaffed, will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much.
Posted by: phen at May 23, 2005 11:36 AM
