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Selling a House With Code Violations or Open Permits on Long Island

You can sell a Long Island house that has code violations, an open building permit, unpermitted work, or a missing certificate of occupancy. New York has no statewide law that bars you from transferring title in that condition, and Real Property Law §462 lets a buyer and seller agree to a sale "as is" (RPL §462). The catch is not the deed. It is local: every town and village runs its own permit and CO system, and a buyer's lender, attorney, title company, and insurer often refuse to close until the problem is cleared.

I buy houses in exactly this shape across Nassau County and Suffolk County, so I want to lay out how it actually works before you spend money fixing something you may not need to fix, or before you take a wholesaler's inflated number at face value.

Long Island house with a second-story addition built over the carport, the kind of expansion that often leaves an open permit behind

The state layer: New York does not ban the sale

Start here, because a lot of online advice gets it wrong.

There is no New York statute that forbids conveying a home just because it has open permits, a code violation, or work done without a permit. Article 14 of the Real Property Law governs disclosure, not whether a deed can transfer (RPL Article 14). Parties are free to contract about the physical condition of the property, including a sale "as is" (RPL §462).

Two more things the statute makes clear for sellers:

  • Your disclosure duty is based on your actual knowledge of the property. You are not on the hook for defects you genuinely did not know about (RPL §461).
  • You are not required to investigate, inspect, or dig through public records to answer.

So at the state level, title can move even with defects attached. The exposure is disclosure liability, local enforcement, and whatever the buyer's side demands in the contract. It is not a blanket ban.

The disclosure you still owe: the PCDS

If you own a covered one-to-four family home, you have to give the buyer a Property Condition Disclosure Statement (PCDS) before they sign a binding contract, and a signed copy gets attached to the contract (RPL §462).

"Covered" matters. Under the statute, residential real property means a one-to-four family dwelling used as a home. It excludes condominiums and cooperatives, along with vacant land held for a future dwelling and homeowners-association property the seller does not own in fee simple (RPL §461). If you are selling a condo or a co-op, the PCDS requirement does not apply to you. Certain other transfers are also exempt, such as court-ordered and foreclosure-related transfers (RPL §463).

Use the current form. It is DOS-1614-f, Rev. 02/25, required for use beginning July 1, 2025 (DOS-1614-f). Question 9 asks it directly: "Are there certificates of occupancy related to the property? If no, explain below". You answer from what you actually know. If your knowledge later changes and makes a delivered PCDS materially inaccurate, you deliver a revised one, though that duty ends once title transfers or the buyer takes occupancy (RPL §464).

The $500 opt-out is gone

This is the correction that most stale articles still get wrong. For years a seller could skip the PCDS and just credit the buyer $500 at closing. That option was repealed. Chapter 484 of the Laws of 2023 (bill A1967) was signed on September 22, 2023 and took effect 180 days later, on March 20, 2024 (A1967).

The current liability section carries no $500 credit. A seller who provides the disclosure is liable only for a willful failure, and the remedy is actual damages plus any other remedies otherwise available (RPL §465). Translation: you cannot buy your way out of the disclosure with $500 anymore, and a false answer you knew was false can cost you real money.

The local layer: who is your building department?

Here is where the friction actually lives, and where Long Island trips people up.

There is no single Nassau County "DOB" and no single Suffolk County "DOB" that issues every certificate of occupancy. New York makes local governments administer the Uniform Code, and the Department of State sets only the minimum standards under 19 NYCRR Part 1203 (19 NYCRR Part 1203). The state's own guidance says every city, town, village, and county administers the Uniform Code in its own jurisdiction, and that project-specific questions go to your local building department (NYS DOS FAQ).

The unit that regulates your property is called the authority having jurisdiction, or AHJ. On Long Island that is your town, or your village if your home sits inside an incorporated village.

That village point is the trap. Many Nassau and Suffolk villages run their own building departments, and a town-level CO search will not cover them. A house in Locust Valley, Levittown, or Huntington Station can fall under a town, while a house a mile away inside a village answers to the village instead. Before you do anything, identify the correct AHJ. Your tax bill or the Suffolk County Tax Map (SCTM) district tells you which jurisdiction you are in.

One more caution: do not apply New York City Department of Buildings rules to a Long Island house. The city's CO system is its own animal. Nassau and Suffolk run on town and village codes under the state Part 1203 framework, not NYC DOB rules.

Three different problems, three different fixes

People lump these together, but they are not the same.

  • An open permit means work was permitted but never closed out. The fix is to close it: finish the remaining inspections and get the certificate. A certificate of occupancy certifies the structure is suitable for occupancy; a certificate of compliance certifies the permitted work met the approved documents and the codes (19 NYCRR Part 1203). Permission to occupy after a permit is generally granted only by issuing that CO or CC.
  • Unpermitted work means someone built or altered without pulling a permit at all. The fix is usually "legalization," an after-the-fact permit that brings the work into the record.
  • An active violation or order means the town has already cited a condition. The fix is to remedy what was cited, which is its own track.

Which of these you have changes the timeline, the cost, and whether a financed buyer can close at all.

Half-finished backyard deck with exposed joists and stacked lumber on a Long Island house, the kind of project that needs its permit closed out

One more distinction. If the town has declared the house unsafe or unfit to occupy, you are past ordinary violations and into a different situation entirely. We cover that one separately in our guide to selling an uninhabitable house on Long Island.

Town-by-town snapshot

Every town does this a little differently. Here are the ones sellers ask about most. Fee amounts below are set by local resolution and change, so verify the current fee with the department before you rely on any number.

East Hampton: watch the date

East Hampton is the clearest example on Long Island of a town that ties a CO to a change of ownership, and it comes with a deadline you need to know.

Cedar-shingle East Hampton style house behind a privet hedge, where an updated certificate of occupancy is required when ownership changes

Town Code Chapter 102-14 says that upon any change in ownership of a property, an updated certificate of occupancy must be obtained, with narrow exceptions (for example, if an updated CO was obtained no more than six months before the transfer, or the transfer is solely for estate planning where beneficial ownership does not change) (Town of East Hampton).

Now the important part. The town has stayed enforcement of that ownership-change CO requirement. The stay is retroactive to January 1, 2024 and runs through December 31, 2026. During the pause, an owner who cannot obtain an updated CO will not be charged with a violation for that specific failure.

Do not read the stay as "East Hampton stopped caring." Even during the pause:

  • Open building permits must still be closed, and failing to close them can still mean renewal fees or violations.
  • Certificates of occupancy are still required for improvements that needed a building permit, and you cannot legally use or occupy a structure without one.

The building department has listed a $600 fee for an updated CO (verify current fee before you rely on it, since it is set by resolution) (Town of East Hampton).

If you are reading this after December 31, 2026, re-check the stay. It was scheduled to end then, and the ownership-change CO requirement is written to come back when it does. Confirm the current status with the town before you close.

Southampton

The Town of Southampton publishes a "Request for Updated Certificate of Occupancy" process. It requires a final inspection, an updated sealed survey, copies of all existing COs and CCs, and, importantly, that all open building permits be finalized before an updated certificate is issued (Town of Southampton). This is a process pathway commonly used on the East End, not a code section that conditions the deed itself.

Brookhaven

Brookhaven's Building Division administers permits, inspections, and code enforcement (Town of Brookhaven). A building permit is valid for one year, and after your final inspection the division mails you a list of what it needs to issue the CO, which can include items like a new survey, an electrical inspection, or approvals from other agencies (Town of Brookhaven). You can check permit status online (Town of Brookhaven).

Babylon

Babylon states plainly that you must have a CO before you can live in a structure, and that structures built without a permit are subject to fines (Town of Babylon). The town runs a legalization path for illegal structures (its "Maintain Structure" and "Maintain Dwelling" applications) that typically calls for a notarized permit application, surveys, floor plans, and photos.

Islip

In Islip, the Building Division handles code and zoning review, and a separate Records Office manages FOIL requests, inspection scheduling, and the final close-out through issuance of a certificate of occupancy or compliance (Town of Islip). Islip requires electronic filing for permit applications, and it flagged that the updated New York Uniform Code and Energy Code took effect December 31, 2025.

Huntington

Huntington is strict about closing permits out. Every permit requires a certificate of occupancy or a certificate of completion to close (Town of Huntington). Permits are valid one year, and a permit cannot be renewed for more than two additional one-year terms (three years total). A permit that expires without a CO or CC has to be replaced with a Replacement Permit. That matters for older, forgotten permits in places like Huntington Station.

Nassau County: Hempstead, North Hempstead, and the village problem

Nassau's two big towns each run their own building department. The Town of Hempstead enforces building, plumbing, electrical, and housing codes and takes permits through an online permit center (Town of Hempstead). The Town of North Hempstead administers state and town codes in its unincorporated areas and issues certificates after inspection (Town of North Hempstead).

Read "unincorporated" carefully. If your Nassau home is inside an incorporated village, the town department does not have your file. The village does. Villages around Hempstead and North Hempstead run independent building departments, and this is where sellers most often get surprised.

Smithtown

Smithtown's Building Department issues permits, inspects construction, issues COs on completion, and keeps permanent records, with a FOIL form for public access (Town of Smithtown).

How to find out what is actually open on your house

You do not have to guess. New York's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), Public Officers Law Article 6, lets you request building records from a municipal department (FOIL). Remember, the PCDS does not require you to FOIL your own records (RPL §462), but the buyer's attorney and title company almost always will, so it is smart to know what they will find first.

Practical paths on Long Island: use the town's FOIL portal or records room, and the online permit-status tools where they exist, like Brookhaven's lookup (Town of Brookhaven) and Islip's FOIL page (Town of Islip). Some close-outs also loop in other agencies, such as the Suffolk County Department of Health Services for septic. Those are separate authorities, so ask your building department which ones apply to your specific property.

Financed buyer versus cash buyer

This is the practical heart of it.

When a lender is involved, the deal has more gatekeepers. The buyer's attorney, the mortgage lender, the title underwriter, and the insurer all get a look, and any of them can condition the closing on clearing the open permit or violation first. That is market practice and underwriting, not a statewide statute. Anyone who tells you a lender's requirement "is the law" is overstating it. It is the lender's rule, and it can still kill your closing just the same.

A cash, as-is buyer changes who is willing to close. There is no lender demanding a clean CO, so a cash buyer can knowingly take on the open-permit risk a financed buyer's lender will not.

Be clear about what cash does and does not do. Selling for cash does not erase the violation. It does not remove the CO or permit obligation, which stays attached to the property and passes with it. And on a covered one-to-four family sale, it does not remove your PCDS duty (RPL §462). What cash changes is the buyer's tolerance for the risk, not the underlying legal picture.

Where a wholesaler exploits this

An open permit is a favorite tool of the inflated-offer game. A wholesaler ties your house up at a big number to beat out real buyers, then goes looking for someone to take the contract. When the title search turns up an open permit or a violation, that becomes the excuse to come back and drop the price on you, sometimes at the closing table when you are already committed.

I am the buyer, not a middleman. When I make an offer, I am the one who closes on it. I do not shop your contract to someone else, and I do not use a permit issue I already knew about to renegotiate later. If a "buyer" gives you a high number and then wants to take photos to show other people, that is usually a sign they plan to resell your contract, not buy your house. We put the full list of red flags in our guide to spotting we buy houses scams and ripoffs in New York.

When to bring in a pro

For a genuinely tangled file, the right move is often an attorney to read your contract and the local rule, and an expeditor or architect to handle a legalization or close-out with the town. That is a process decision based on how deep the problem goes, not a reason to panic. A single stale permit from a deck job is not the same as unpermitted living space, and the fix scales with the problem.

FAQ

Can I legally sell my Long Island house with a code violation or open permit?

Yes. No New York statute bans the transfer, and you can sell "as is" (RPL §462). Whether a financed buyer can close is a separate question that comes down to their lender, attorney, title company, and insurer.

Do I have to fix the violation before I sell?

There is no statewide law that forces you to remediate before you deliver the deed in an ordinary arm's-length sale. Your town can still enforce its code, and a buyer's contract or lender can still demand the fix as a condition of their closing. A cash, as-is buyer can often close without that condition.

Do I have to disclose it?

On a covered one-to-four family home, yes, through the PCDS delivered before a binding contract, and Question 9 specifically asks about certificates of occupancy (DOS-1614-f). You answer from your actual knowledge (RPL §461). Condos and co-ops are not covered by this requirement.

Can I just pay the buyer $500 and skip the disclosure?

No. That opt-out was repealed effective March 20, 2024 (A1967). A willful failure to disclose now exposes you to actual damages (RPL §465).

Which building department do I deal with?

Your town, or your village if your home is inside an incorporated village. There is no single Nassau or Suffolk county building department that issues every CO (19 NYCRR Part 1203). Check your tax bill or SCTM district to confirm the correct authority.

Does East Hampton require an updated CO when I sell?

Chapter 102-14 requires an updated CO on a change of ownership, but the town has stayed enforcement of that requirement through December 31, 2026 (retroactive to January 1, 2024) (Town of East Hampton). Even during the stay, open permits must still be closed and improvement COs are still required. If you are past December 31, 2026, confirm the current status with the town.

Will an unpaid code fine become a lien on my house?

That depends on the municipality and the type of enforcement, and a building-code notice is not the same instrument as a recorded lien or a tax warrant. Do not assume a fine automatically converts to a lien. Ask the town and your attorney what the specific enforcement path is for your property. If a recorded lien does turn up, that has its own playbook: see selling a house with a lien in New York.

How do I find out what is open on my house?

File a FOIL request with the right building department (FOIL), or use the town's online permit-status tool where one exists.

A quick disclaimer

This is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for talking to your own attorney or your local building department. Local rules, fees, forms, and deadlines change (the East Hampton stay is a live example). Confirm anything you rely on against the primary sources cited here and with the authority having jurisdiction over your property before you act.

Sources

Selling as-is to We Buy Long Island Homes Fast

If the permit or violation is more than you want to deal with, you can sell the house as it sits.

Cape-style Long Island house with black shutters and a white fence, sold as-is with its code violations to a cash buyer

I am Mike Plactere. I am a licensed CPA and a licensed New York real estate agent, and I have been buying on Long Island since 2019. I have purchased over 300 homes and more than $130 million in property across Nassau County and Suffolk County. I buy directly, pay cash, and renovate what I buy. I am the buyer, not a wholesaler, so I do not tie your house up and shop the contract to someone else.

What that means for a house with an open permit or a violation:

  • Cash offer within 24 hours, and we close on your timeline.
  • As-is, any condition. No repairs, no cleaning, no showings.
  • No fees, no commissions, and I pay all the closing costs.
  • Proof of funds available on request.

A cash offer is below full retail, and I will tell you that straight. What you get in return is speed, certainty, no repairs, and a buyer who does not come back to renegotiate after a title search turns something up. Selling as-is does not erase the violation or the town's CO and permit rules, but it can move the risk off your plate to someone who buys these houses on purpose.

Here is William Rothstein, one seller, in his own words:

"Mike made the process of selling our home as easy as it could have been. He was a pleasure to work with throughout the process. He offered a decent price and even covered some of our closing costs. We left our house in good hands."

We hold a BBB A+ rating and 42 five-star Google reviews. If you want a real number on a house with permit or code issues anywhere on Long Island, call 631-825-8747 or reach out. Office: 173 Birch Hill Rd, Ste. B, Locust Valley, NY 11560.

Picture of Mike Plactere, CPA

Mike Plactere, CPA

Mike Plactere is the owner of We Buy Long Island Homes Fast and the buyer behind every offer the company makes. He is a licensed CPA and a licensed New York real estate agent, and he has bought more than 300 homes worth over $130 million across Long Island since 2019. Mike buys directly: he pays cash, closes himself, and renovates the homes he buys instead of wholesaling contracts. He works from a real office in Locust Valley and holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. NY real estate license #10401372444. NY CPA license #120535.

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