Separating apt combos

If they were legally combined then the building's certificate of occupancy would have been changed to reflect the new, lower number of total apartments in the building. If the building were to allow them to be reseparated they would no doubt expect the owner to bear the legal costs of making another change. Both apartments would also have to be able to become fully conforming apartments. I highly doubt a board would allow creative recutting, so the original footprints, (although not necessarily floorplans) would need to be followed.

Often apartments are not legally combined, but walls are taken down to effectively combine them. One tip off will be two maintenances and ConEd bills. Those would likely be easier to separate.

I am in the process of doing exactly that right now. About 12 yrs ago I bought both and combined. I have a certificate of completion from the DOB. Fortunately the building did not make me sign anything stating that I could not re-separate which they do now. The process is to have an architect do a plan of existing and prior plans. Hopefully all the kitchen hookups are in the same places as they were in the 2nd apt. My big issue is that I have combined the electric into 1 box and now have to split that up. That's the big ticket item. I have a very nice and good expediter that's working on this if you would like his name. Good luck and feel free to contact me. Ellen

We do a lot of guessing here about how Certificates of Occupancy work.

When apartments are combined, a new CofO isn't required. I don't know whether that's true when apartments are split. (My building is pre-WWI, so never had a CofO. It got one when all the apartments were split in the 1930s, but hasn't had new ones when many apartments were combined over the years. The combos themselves had work permits.)

As ekapit said, the whole permit/CofO issue has to be gone through with an expediter.

The structure aside, the rest of the process will depend on whether you're in a co-op or a condo. Either would have to approve the split.

If a co-op, then shares would be reallocated, probably back to the original unless additional shares were issued for hallway space when the apartments were combined. That process is internal to the co-op and doesn't involve the city.

If a condo, then splitting the one tax lot into two would require that the condo declaration be amended
and filed with the city.

Dug around some more at the DoB site. Whether a combo or a split, a new or amended CofO isn't required unless there is a "change in use, exits or occupancy".

Thanks for the comments

agree NWT we did a combination of two apartments in a brownstone and a new c of o wasnt required.