Expert: Hans Weber, Licensed Broker Associate - 6/13/2004

Question
1)what would be the best public record/s (e.g. tax assessment, title of ownership, etc.) that shows if house is legal one family, two family, etc., how many bedrooms a house or a unit has, etc.?
2)and is a certificate of occupancy a public record?
thanks  

Answer
Hi Tony,
Thank you for your question.

Most town halls have building departments and assessor's offices which should have the property card records of every house in their jurisdiction.  The property card should have the information you are seeking regarding bedrooms, bathrooms, property size, 1, 2, 3 family status, etc.  The property card will also have a list of owners from when it was built to the present and may have details as fine as flooring type, fireplaces, garages.

Now comes the fun part...

When an owner alters or adds on the house they are supposed to get a building permit for the work to be done and have it inspected by the building department in order to get the required certificate of occupancy.  Not all owners do this.  They add a bath add a room, whatever, and don't file the proper paperwork.  This may only be discovered when the house is being sold, because the bank will want the house and property card to match and will want all the required certificates of occupancy to be on file.  If they are not the owner will have to apply before closing and the work done in the past will have to be inspected and brought to current code.

All of these files on all properties are public record and you are welcome to inspect them during business hours.  You can also make copies.

There are houses built before the town may have started keeping records and no file may be available.  This will usually be reolved by a pre-date letter which the building department will issue stating the property predates current records and is ok as is.

Hope this helps you out.
Hans