Renovations and Permits

I'm curious how long it has taken anyone (recently) to file for a permit for renovations to your house with your town. And did you hire an expediter or do it yourself?

We live in North Hempstead, and we know a few people in our town who began renovations in the last few months. They all said it took about a year and a half to get permits, and they wound up hiring expediters when they saw nothing was happening.

Curious to know how long this tends to take, though I guess it depends on your town.

Re: Renovations and Permits

In Islip, my permits took a year and 2 days, but that was because I needed two variance hearings. That length of time is unusually long for my town. It should only take a few months, tops. It also depends on what you're having done.

Re: Renovations and Permits

We are having an addition to our house, and my neighbors are as well (one needed a variance hearing, but they obtained a permit to do work on another part of the house before the hearing). No one I know who has done work of this nature recently has gotten a permit in a few months without an expeditor.

It just disgusts me that you seem to need to pay someone in North Hempstead to get the people in the Buildings Dept. to do their job! Although, I'm basing this upon two people, there were a couple politicians who ran with Buildings Dept. reform as part of their platform in No. Hempstead. One of them won.