Issuance and Renewal of COs migrating to DOB NOW: Build
Learn more on how to migrate Certificates of Occupancy from BIS.
In February 2021, the DOB announced new training sessions for the upcoming expansion of DOB NOW: Build. Included in this update: The entire occupancy process from BIS Jobs, including everything involving Certificates of Occupancy, will need to be processed in DOB NOW: Build, starting on March 1, 2021.
The main updates include:
- All Certificate of Occupancy requests being submitted through DOB NOW: Build.
- The BIS job-level Schedule A form being renamed to the Schedule of Occupancy.
- A Schedule of Occupancy being needed in DOB NOW: Build in order to get a Certificate of Occupancy (whether it’s a renewal of an existing CO or a brand new one).
The system, as it currently stands, registers COs by job/project, which means a single property can have multiple COs at any given point. The updates will streamline this process to be more transparent so that a single property can only have one active CO at a time, but that CO will be more flexible throughout development.
In order to transition over:
- Applicant must re-enter previously-approved Schedule A for the individual project/job into DOB NOW
- This is a one-time step required for every BIS New Building/Alteration Type 1 Job.
- DOB Plan examiners will create or update a Schedule of Occupancy under the Building Identification Number (BIN).
- Applicant will request whichever Certificate of Occupancy they need.
- DOB will approve the job-level Schedule of Occupancy, which will update the BIN-level Schedule of Occupancy.
This will particularly impact those with the renewable Temporary Certificates of Occupancy, since these updates, along with the recent creation of the Interim Certificate of Occupancy, seem to be moving towards weaning building owners off of continuous TCO renewals every 90 days.
While the end goal is to make the system more efficient for all, any new process has a steep learning curve, especially for those used to renewing in BIS every 90 days. Building owners should make sure they have building professionals on their team trained and well-versed with the new changes so they don’t run into construction snags in the next few months.
Feel free to reach out to Outsource Consultants for assistance on the upcoming filing changes and any other matters of code compliance.
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