What You Need to Know Before Renovating a NYC Co-op

You can renovate a co-op apartment, but not on your own say-so. Your proprietary lease allows no alterations without the corporation’s consent, and that consent comes through a document called an alteration agreement. Before you hire anyone or draw anything, reread the lease and ask the managing agent for the building’s current agreement. Every building’s rules differ a little.

What needs approval, and what usually does not

These guidelines are common, but your own building’s documents decide.

• Walls. Any change to the layout needs approval, even taking out the wall between the kitchen and the living room.
• Wires and pipes. Electrical and plumbing work needs approval. The more of it that is buried in floors and ceilings, the harder approval becomes.
• A full kitchen or bathroom. Expect a long review and a request for every detail, and a completion deadline with charges if your contractor misses it.
• Painting. Normally no approval is needed. Check with the building manager anyway.
• Small cosmetic changes. Swapping a faucet or a showerhead is usually fine. If the building holds a green certification such as LEED, the new fixtures may have to meet its standard.
• Hanging art. Ask before you drill. Some co-ops restrict it.

What an alteration agreement asks for

The New York City Bar Association publishes a model form for co-ops, and it is a fair guide to what these agreements contain (model alteration agreement). Yours will differ in its numbers, but the parts are usually these.

• Plans. Detailed drawings and specifications, with a room-by-room list of the work, prepared by a licensed architect or engineer if the building requires it. The building’s own engineer reviews them and can demand changes.
• Fees and deposits. A processing fee to the managing agent, a deposit toward the building’s engineering and legal costs, and a security deposit against damage. The Bar’s commentary notes that some co-ops set the security deposit at 1 percent of the projected cost with a $5,000 minimum, and others charge a flat sum. The review costs are yours even if they exceed the deposit.
• Insurance. The model form asks the shareholder for at least $1,000,000 of liability coverage and asks every contractor for workers’ compensation, general liability, automobile and umbrella policies that name the corporation and the managing agent. Boards may ask for more on a large job.
• Permits. Every approval the work needs, from the Department of Buildings and, where it applies, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, with copies to the building before work starts.
• Your contractors. A list of everyone who will work on the job and copies of your contracts with them.

The rules once work begins

• Hours. Work on weekdays only, not on weekends or holidays, within hours the building sets, with noisy work starting later still.
• A deadline. The consent letter names a completion date. Under the model form more time must be bought, at a set charge per day.
• The common areas. Nothing stored in the halls, hallway floors covered, and materials and debris moved by the service elevator at the times the superintendent directs. The board may suspend work if dust gets out of hand.
• The building’s systems. No interfering with the building’s gas, electric, heating or plumbing systems, no enclosing a valve and no opening in an outside wall.
• Afterward. You are responsible for maintaining and repairing what you altered, and a buyer of the apartment takes over the agreement.

A breach is serious. The model form lets the corporation suspend the work, revoke its consent or require the apartment to be put back as it was.

How to get consent without losing months

• Ask about renovations before you buy. Know what the building allows going in. If you are buying an older apartment that you will have to renovate, consider sending your plans with your purchase application.
• Start with the managing agent, not the board. The agent has the current agreement and knows what the board asks for.
• Seek approval before doing anything, even work you think is exempt. A conversation with the building manager costs nothing.
• Bring in your contractor early. A board approves plans, and a contractor helps produce the plans and details it wants to see. We handle the design and the construction and check back with your co-op as the job proceeds.
• Answer quickly. If you are following the building’s alteration policy, approval should come. When the board asks for more information, send it the same week.
• Have a backup plan. Keep a cheaper option ready in case the budget slips, and somewhere to stay if the job runs past its deadline and you are without a kitchen or a bathroom.

Our service for these buildings is described under co-op renovation, and the wider process under apartment renovation in NYC. Common questions are answered in our FAQs. Once consent is near, read how to prepare for your NYC apartment renovation.

Questions people ask