Selling a Staten Island House With Open DOB Violations: What You Need to Know
If your Staten Island home has open violations from the NYC Department of Buildings — a complaint about a finished basement, an unpermitted deck, a dormer that was never filed — you are far from alone. Staten Island carries some of the heaviest concentrations of open DOB violations in the city, and many owners only discover them when they try to sell.
An "open" violation simply means the DOB flagged an issue on the property's public record and it was never cleared with a Certificate of Correction. The most common ones on Staten Island: unpermitted basement apartments, decks and fences built without permits, illegal conversions, and work done without a permit by a previous owner. Violations can sit on a property's record for decades — and they follow the property, not the person who caused them.
### Why violations scare off traditional buyers
Most buyers purchasing with a mortgage cannot close on a house with open DOB violations. Their lender may refuse to fund the loan until the violations are resolved, and their attorney will flag every open item during due diligence. Resolving violations through the normal process — hiring an expediter or architect, filing plans, pulling permits, passing inspections, and closing out the Certificate of Correction — often takes months and can cost thousands of dollars before you ever see an offer.
Even all-cash traditional buyers usually demand a steep discount to cover the risk, then drag out the closing while they investigate. Plenty of deals fall apart at the attorney-review stage over exactly this issue.
Your three real options
**1. Resolve the violations before you list.** This works if you have the time and money. Hire a licensed architect or expediter, file the paperwork, and get the violations cleared. The upside is a clean sale at full market price. The downside: months of process, inspection visits, and costs that can run into five figures on serious violations.
**2. Sell the house as-is to a buyer who handles problem properties.** Cash buyers who work with distressed Staten Island homes buy with the violations in place and factor the cure cost into the offer. You trade some price for speed and certainty — no expediters, no hearings, no waiting on the DOB.
**3. Do nothing and hope it goes away.** It won't. Unresolved violations can rack up additional ECB penalties over time, and every month you hold the property costs you taxes, insurance, and maintenance.
### What an as-is sale actually looks like
The process is straightforward: you walk the property together, the buyer prices in the cost of resolving the violations, and you get a written cash offer — no financing contingencies, no lender inspections. Closings can happen in as little as 7 days when title is clear, because there is no mortgage underwriting involved.
You still have to disclose. New York requires sellers to disclose known defects and violations, and hiding an open DOB violation from a buyer can create legal liability long after closing. A legitimate as-is buyer will pull the property's violation history themselves, so there is nothing to hide and nothing to gain by hiding it.
If you're not sure where your property stands, look up its record on the DOB's public Buildings Information System before you talk to anyone. Knowing exactly what's open puts you in a much stronger position, whichever route you choose.
If you'd rather talk it through with someone who buys Staten Island houses in this condition every week, call (917) 335-7258 — I'll tell you straight whether your situation fits an as-is sale or whether fixing first makes more sense.
*Nicandri Estevez is a licensed New York real estate agent who buys houses directly as a principal on Staten Island.*