Obstacles to overcome in obtaining building permits:
1) Workers Compensation Insurance
2) Contractor's License
3) Co-op insurance/owning shares in a corporation
These are the three things I need to figure out in order to get building permits. The Workers compensation is actually no big deal. I just need to get a form filled out and notarized and fax it into the Manhattan NY Workers' Compensation office. I should be getting that back in 5 days.
As for the contractor's license, I need to prove I'm doing the renovations to my own home to the Department of Buildings. This would be fine and dandy, except that technically I don't own a home. I own shares in a corporation, which are assigned to my apartment. Not one single expediter I've talked to so far knows how to deal with this either. I need to figure this out in order to get work permits.
The final piece of the puzzle is the insurance requirements my co-op has for contractors, which is a minimum of $2 million personal liability. This sounds like a lot, but it's easy for me to get $1 million with my home owners policy. Going to $2 million is a bit tricky, so I've requested that the Board of Directors accepts $1 million in this case as it seems fairly special. They approved all my renovations this week, given that I get the permits and have the proper insurance coverage.
All in all, I think I may be the first person in the building who has properly gone through this mess. It's clear that the Board and managing agent have little idea how to handle it. I hope we can all learn from this and make it easier for residents to do their own renovations in the future.
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