A Certificate of Occupancy (CO) states a building’s legal use and/or type of permitted occupancy. New buildings must have a CO, and existing buildings must have a current or amended CO when there is a change in use, egress or type of occupancy. No one may legally occupy a building until the Department has issued a Certificate of Occupancy or Temporary Certificate of Occupancy. The Department issues a final Certificate of Occupancy when the completed work matches the submitted plans for new buildings or major alterations. It issues a Letter of Completion for minor alterations to properties. These documents confirm the work complies with all applicable laws, all paperwork has been completed, all fees owed to the Department have been paid, all relevant violations have been resolved and all necessary approvals have been received from other City Agencies.
This dataset contains all Certificates of Occupancy issued from 7/12/2012 to March 2021. PDFs of the actual COs are viewable in www.nyc.gov/bis.
For COs issued since March 2021, see DOB NOW: Certificate of Occupancy dataset.