Thousands of buildings across New York City have been operating without the certificates legally mandated as a condition of their occupancy, according to a letter published on the website of City Comptroller Brad Lander. Addressing Department of Buildings Commissioner James S. Oddo and FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker, Lander elaborates his office’s investigation into whether the Turkevi Center (a Turkish consular building) had undergone all proper fire and building inspections before opening, as well as the results of a broader “analysis of the Department of Building’s data concerning the issuance of Temporary Certificates of Occupancy (TCO) in New York City as a whole.”
Analyzing the state of DOB certifications data across the city, the comptroller’s office states that “the results are staggering,” finding that at least 3,546 buildings in New York City are operating without a valid TCO or CO. According to their analysis, over half of those buildings are in Manhattan, while 17.6% are in Brooklyn, and 16% in Queens. Offices are the largest single category of building with lapsed TCOs, with Lander’s office finding 637 of them across the city. Among these, some of the lapses in DOB certification are “astonishing,” the letter says, with an average of 3.5 years across the board that includes “at least one building in the group [that] has been without a valid certificate for 4,246 days, or 11.6 years.” In addition, a large portion of these buildings have thousands of open violations from the FDNY, DOB, and Environmental Control Board (ECB). Among those issued by the ECB, according to the letter, “236 violations are designated Class 1, or ‘Immediately Hazardous.'”
Lander also zeros in on the Turkevi Center (also known as Turkish House), which became the stuff of headlines last September after it was mentioned in the indictment detailing the corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. According to documents filed by prosecutors in federal court, the FDNY Chief of Department and the Fire Prevention Chief were allegedly made to “assist the Turkish Consulate in obtaining a TCO” at the risk of losing their jobs. The TCO was issued on September 17th 2021 after a “Conditional Letter of No Objection” from the FDNY. However, Lander’s investigation finds that “the documents produced by DOB and FDNY disclose no record of any fire safety inspections being conducted by the FDNY” prior to that date, and furthermore, the Turkish House is “currently operating without a TCO or Final CO (Certificate of Occupancy)” as of October 1st, after the last one it applied for with DOB was denied. Prior to that, the building had been operating under a series of TCOs issued “approximately every ninety days.”
The letter goes on to recommend an immediate review of the buildings highlighted in the analysis.
Brad Lander was elected to the New York City Council in 2009, and then to the office of City Comptroller city in 2021. He is also one of a number of candidates running for mayor against incumbent Eric Adams.
