If you are the party that needs access, you need to understand that obtaining the license is a process that requires time and preparation. You don`t want your contractor to sit on the sidewalk waiting to start work while you negotiate with the neighbor, or have to go to court with a section 881 application. Details of access, protection and insurance must also be agreed with your contractor and architect. Almost every co-op and condo in New York City will eventually need access to a neighboring property in order to work, or will be asked to give access to their neighbors so they can work on their building. [1] Penetration can be minimal – such as installing safety barriers on a roof – or extensive and disruptive – such as setting up scaffolding, closing courtyards or terraces, or causing a lot of noise or vibration. What are you doing? What can you do? The basic rules are quite simple. A landowner who needs access – either to comply with a legal obligation to protect adjacent land during construction or to facilitate or taste construction – must obtain a licence from the owner of the adjacent property. A license is simply a non-exclusive use authorization for a defined purpose and period of time. The license may be obtained either through negotiation and agreement with the owner of the adjacent property or, if no agreement can be reached, through legal proceedings under Section 881 of the New York Real Estate Actions and Procedures Act. Article 881 provides that a “licence shall be granted by the court in a case appropriate to the conditions required by the courts. A “reasonable case” is one in which interpretation is “necessary” within certain limits of relevance and practicability.
The real problem is to define the conditions under which access is granted. Owners who completely resist access largely fail. [1] Access to the adjacent property is generally not required for the construction of a sidewalk shed – which is required for twenty feet on both sides of a construction project – because the walkway in front of the property adjacent to the property line is the property of the city (unless the adjacent property is set back from the property line, in which case access to the adjacent property and therefore to the permit, etc. is required). The license, whether by agreement or court order, must deal with the following: whether you apply for or grant the license, you should also take into account that there are other parties whose cooperation and consent is required – the owner of the apartment or the tenant with the balcony or courtyard closed, the tenant of the retail store, whose light and air are blocked by scaffolding, the tenant or owner of the apartment can build a work platform outside its windows, the tenant or the immediately adjacent resident who will be most affected by the noise or vibrations. This memorandum was originally issued by Balber Pickard Maldonado & Van Der Tuin, PC, who joined Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP on February 1, 2017 and now operates as part of SGR`s Cooperative/Condominium practice group. . . .