Contractor threatening to file DOB complaint!

He's bluffing. He'll get in a heapload of trouble for illegally doing work. If anything you should demand the money you paid the contractor back (or part of it) since he lied to you and said he was working legally when he wasn't.

You might want to talk to a lawyer about it first, but personally I would refuse to pay any bills from that contractor since he wasn't working legally.

Hire a lawyer , and sue this person for breach of contract and extortion -- he'll never do work in that building again

Where is your condo board. I did renovation work in my apt., similar to the work you're doing and needed board approval to proceed.

contractors are the worst. i don't think i've ever heard anyone say anything good about their contractors! sorry you're dealing with this.

My contractor was great.

The extortion you can't really sue for since you have no evidence (unless he was dumb enough to email you or leave a voicemail threatening you), but doing illegal work as a contractor is absolutely breach of contract. Talk to a lawyer

>2. I read in other posts that if you don’t let them in, they eventually just close the complaint – is this true?

Brilliant

>sue this person for breach of contract and extortion

More brilliant

I did similar work to yours without totally removing a wall.. My board had to review the work and approve it first. Nothing had to go through the DOB, even the total rewiring of the apartment, additional outlets, and upgrade from a fuse box to circuit breakers. I just had to provide the license and required insurance for the electrician.

MissyNYC,

You have nothing to worry about. The contractor is the one who told you that you didn't need the permit, if you did he would the one who would have the problem. If you were in the middle of a construction project and there was a complaint filed they could stop the job but as you said you are almost done. The contractor would only be worried about a lawsuit or complaint if he was wrong in some regard. The fact that he would tell you that he is going to the Dept of buildings is ridiculous.

NYC Homeowner,
Your comment is just as ridiculous as Missy's contractor.

Primer05. I know you're a contractor, but I still concur with your view on contractors. I've had renovations done on 5 properties over the years and never had problems with licensed, insured contractors whose references I've checked. All of these contractors had a policy of not taking the final payment until we were totally satisfied with the work. There were some minor problems on a couple of jobs, but everything was resolved without any drama.

You should talk to the Board about this contractor -- will you sue ?

This is getting muddled, here are my two cents.

1. Somebody asks you to sign a release, and is backing it up with a threat. This is a situation where I would choose to meet with an attorney. You call one up, ask for a 30 min consult, or 15 if they'll do it. You want a real estate litigation attorney. Ask if they have experience in DOB permit problems. You do not want to hire the atty who closed your deal (transactional atty), unless that person also knows this area (unlikely).

If money is tight for you, you can probably get advice for free over the phone simply by calling 10 such attorneys and leaving messages. However it's not nice to take advantage of people, so the above is preferable.

If contractor drafted that release on his own, run, don't walk, to an atty.

2. I have one experience in which I complained about something that was done without a permit, the owners never let the inspector in, and the complaint was closed. I was there, I know it was an illegal mezzanine, and so did the agent selling the space. I followed what happened and this is what happened. However, you want to come clean with DOB which is super smart of you.

2. A DOB expediter is your person for evaluating existence of violations. After talking with knowledgeable atty I might hire one of those too (depending on my atty's advice).

3. Probably nothing much bad will happen to your contractor. But it would be foolish of you to sign anything, especially with a proverbial gun pointed at your head, without an atty's advice.

Missy,

You are getting a lot of information here telling you all different things. I have been a contractor for 15 years. Feel free to call me and I will explain all your options

Jeff 646-436-3942