No C/O for garage

No C/O for garage

We had an bid accepted on a house (its a private sale, friend of the family - he was giving us the first crack at buying the house)
He accepted our offer on Wednesday night and we mentioned that he needs to go to the town (town of Huntington) and find out if the garage has a C/O.
I called our lawyer and mortagage women to start the ball rolling for us (we were to meet with the mortagage women tonight).

SO last night we got the phone call from the seller saying that a form that should of been filed in the 60's was never filed - so no C/O
The seller needs to have an Town Inspector in but he needs to do a few things to the house first since the Town will look at more than just the gargage.

I was wondering if any of you had this same situation.
How long did it take, will he have problem getting a C/O, will that raise the taxes, does the seller need to be motivated to make this happen fast.

Thanks!!!

Re: No C/O for gargage

Re: No C/O for gargage

My Fi had this problem when he sold his last house. He didnt have a C/O for something. At closing they put $$ in escrow and he was responsible for getting that C/O in a certain amt of time. If he didnt get it the buyer got that money back and if he did my FI got the $$, which is what happened. My lawyers says this is done all the time, talk to your lawyer and make sure he puts in the contract that all C/O's need to be turned over to you at closing. I wouldnt worry over this, from what I understand this is pretty common.

Re: No C/O for gargage

What's a C/O??? Just curious.

Re: No C/O for gargage

Re: No C/O for gargage

Actually I did. I was able to buy the house, I didn't do anything to it but when I went to sell it the buyers mortgage company asked for the CO's for the garage and deck. It was no big deal though the town came took a quick look, I paid some money and go the CO's

Re: No C/O for gargage

c/o is certificate of occupancy

It may take several weeks for the town to process the paperwork, but things like that happen all the time. Your attorney should be able to work it into your contract.

CONGRATS and Good Luck!

Re: No C/O for gargage

My house was missing a C/O for a converted garage last year. We found that out upon inspection. We put it into the contract that the seller was responsible for obtaining and paying for it. My seller did and it did not hold things up - not sure what they did but they were anxious to move so they may have pushed things along. From bid to close was only 6 weeks in total for me. I have heard horror stories of these things dragging on and was nervous but guess I was lucky. The town could play apart as well and if they don't stay on top of it it could be long. As far as taxes - not really sure of effect. Our taxes are higher than they should be to begin with but as far as I remember it didn't effect taxes too much.

Re: No C/O for gargage

Thanks - now the seller is in no rush to sell because he can't be bothered to deal with the town right now
we finally get a bid accepted and this happens
I don't know how much more I can deal with this!!! We thought this was the one, we had the first shot at it and no one to compete against.

Re: No C/O for gargage

If you really love this house and want to take a bit of risk. You could offer to take a reduction in the price and get the CO yourself. You might have have to search a bit more for a lender and maybe put some money in escro but a good mortgage broker should be able to help you out.

Re: No C/O for garage

OMG, I was reading this post last week and not understanding what a C/O was. Now we have the same problem! The lawyer says it shouldn't hold anything up but we'll see. The sellers are working on it now.

Re: No C/O for garage

The C/O's are for the extensions. What are the chances of the taxes going up? They are very high already. The real estate lady said they were high because of the extensions on the house. They supposedly are paying taxes on the extensions already.