Building without a permit in New York

What New York law says

New York runs two entirely separate systems and the dividing line is the New York City boundary. Outside New York City the state Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code applies and Executive Law 382(2) is the penalty provision: a person served with an order to remedy who fails to comply within the time fixed, and any owner, builder, architect, tenant, contractor, subcontractor or construction superintendent who knowingly violates the uniform code or a lawful order made under it, is punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 per day of violation, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, for the first 180 days. For the next 180 days the fine floor rises to $25 per day and after that to $50 per day, with the $1,000 daily ceiling and the one-year imprisonment exposure unchanged. Executive Law 382 does not name a misdemeanor class, but because it authorizes imprisonment over 15 days and not more than one year, Penal Law 55.10(2)(c) deems it an unclassified misdemeanor. Enforcement is local: Executive Law 381(2) requires every local government to administer and enforce the code, 19 NYCRR Part 1203 sets the minimum standards that local program must contain, and 19 NYCRR 1203.5(c) fixes the compliance window in an order to remedy at 30 days. Inside New York City none of this governs; the NYC Construction Codes apply instead, and Administrative Code 28-202.1 and 28-203.1 set the civil and criminal exposure (see notes for the verbatim NYC ranges).

Cited from Outside New York City: N.Y. Exec. Law 382(2); N.Y. Exec. Law 381(2); 19 NYCRR 1203.3(a)(1), 1203.5(c); N.Y. Penal Law 55.10(2)(c). Inside New York City: NYC Admin. Code 28-201.1, 28-202.1, 28-203.1, 28-203.2, 28-204.1.: official text. Localities enforce these rules and may add their own fees and procedures on top.

Can you get a permit after the work is done?

This is where the two tracks diverge most sharply. Inside New York City there is an explicit statutory legalization path with a published multiplier: Administrative Code Article 213 of Title 28 imposes a department penalty whenever work requiring a permit was performed without one, and Administrative Code 28-213.1.1 sets that penalty at six times the permit fee for a one-family or two-family dwelling, with a floor of $600 and a ceiling of $10,000. For any other building, including common areas of a condominium or cooperative, Administrative Code 28-213.1.2 sets it at 21 times the permit fee, floor $6,000 and ceiling $15,000. Administrative Code 28-213.3 makes payment a precondition: no permit for that work issues until the penalty is paid, so legalizing unpermitted work in New York City means paying the multiplier first. Two aggravators follow: Administrative Code 28-213.6 doubles the civil penalty for any further code violation at that building for one year after the penalty is imposed, and Administrative Code 28-213.7 lets the department charge a complaint-based inspection fee, in an amount set by rule, for one year after. The department rule implementing all of this, 1 RCNY 102-04, adds that if an owner seeks a permit for the unpermitted work before a notice of violation is issued, the penalty drops to the flat $600 or $6,000 floor, and it lists waivers including one for a subsequent bona fide purchaser who did not do the work. Outside New York City, by contrast, no state statute or regulation creates an after-the-fact or legalization permit and no multiplier or investigation fee is set at the state level; what state law supplies is the stop work order that 19 NYCRR 1203.3(c) requires every local program to provide for work performed without a required permit, plus the order to remedy and the Executive Law 382(2) penalties behind it. The retroactive path outside the city is therefore whatever the individual city, town, village or county wrote into its own code enforcement program.

Cited from Inside New York City: NYC Admin. Code 28-213.1, 28-213.1.1, 28-213.1.2, 28-213.3, 28-213.6, 28-213.7; 1 RCNY 102-04(b), (d). Outside New York City: 19 NYCRR 1203.3(c), 1203.5; N.Y. Exec. Law 382(2) (no statewide after-the-fact permit provision exists).: official text.

The typical path, whatever your locality calls it: stop any ongoing work, contact the permit office before they contact you, apply for the permit describing what was actually built, and expect the office to require opening up or inspecting concealed work. Voluntarily coming forward generally goes better than waiting for a complaint or a sale to surface it.

What New York permit offices charge when work starts first

The statute above sets the ceiling; the bill comes from the local office. 2 New York jurisdictions we cover publish a specific surcharge for work started before the permit, quoted here from the fee schedule or permit page we verified, each linked to the page that carries the citation.

• The matching 1 and 2 family penalty for filing after the fact starts at $780.00.

  New York City · from the plumbing permit page · last checked 15 Aug 2026

• A deck built before the permit was issued is charged under 86-11C(2) at $400 plus $36 per additional $1,000.

  Town of Hempstead · from the deck permit page · last checked 15 Aug 2026

Jurisdictions not listed either publish no surcharge clause or publish one we could not quote from an official schedule; their permit pages state what we could verify.

Who can pull the permit

New York State sets no owner-builder rule at all outside New York City. Executive Law 381(2) puts administration and enforcement in the hands of each local government, and 19 NYCRR 1203.3(a)(1) only requires each authority having jurisdiction to make building permits mandatory for work that must conform to the codes, leaving who may apply to local law. The state licenses no general contractors and imposes no owner-builder affidavit, disclosure form or post-permit sale restriction of the kind Florida uses, so whether a homeowner may pull the permit is a question for the specific city, town, village or county. New York City is the genuine outlier. Administrative Code 28-105.1 makes the work itself unlawful without a written permit, and Administrative Code 28-104.1 bars the department from issuing that permit until it approves the required construction documents, which must be prepared by or under the supervision of a registered design professional, meaning a licensed architect or engineer, as required by the code. A homeowner therefore cannot self-prepare and file the plans for permit-requiring work in New York City even though Administrative Code 28-105.5.1 defines the permit applicant as the person who performs the work or retains a subcontractor, and even though the general contractor registration definition in Administrative Code 28-401.3 expressly excludes an individual who constructs a residential structure of no more than three dwelling units for his or her own occupancy. Note that Administrative Code 28-105.4 exempts minor alterations and ordinary repairs from the permit requirement entirely, so the design professional bottleneck applies only to work that needs a permit in the first place.

Cited from Inside New York City: NYC Admin. Code 28-104.1, 28-105.1, 28-105.4, 28-105.5.1, 28-401.3 (definition of "general contractor"). Outside New York City: N.Y. Exec. Law 381(2); 19 NYCRR 1203.3(a)(1).: official text.

Selling or buying in New York?

• Selling a house with unpermitted work
• Buying a house with unpermitted work

How New York compares: building without a permit, state by state.

Your local permit office

Enforcement, after-the-fact fees, and the exact fix-it process are local. We cover these New York permit offices:

• Buffalo
• New York City
• Rochester
• Town of Brookhaven
• Town of Hempstead

Official sources

• https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EXC/382
• https://www.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/codes-pdf/cons_codes_2022/2022GAP_Chapter2_EnforcementWBwm.pdf
• https://www.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/codes-pdf/cons_codes_2022/2022GAP_Chapter1_AdministrationWBwm.pdf