Village Board Enacts Six-Month Moratorium on ‘Maintain Fee’

The Rockville Centre Village Board of Trustees has enacted a six-month moratorium on a fee imposed on residents seeking to legalize building conditions for which they have no permits.

The so-called "maintain fee," normally $1,190, will be waived until April 10, 2013, in a pilot program to encourage residential property owners to make application to legalize buildings, structures and uses which are not in compliance with local and New York State codes.  

Applicants will still have to pay all statutory permit fees, in accordance with the village fee schedule, for building permits not obtained when the work was originally performed. 

Such situations often come to light when a house is being sold and title searches reveal there are no approvals or certificates of occupancy on record for existing structures, according to Rockville Centre Building Department Superintendent Dan Casella.

"Homeowners often don't know when they buy their house that there may be past improvements that never received the required permits or inspections," Casella said.

"For building and fire officials, this is an important public safety issue; the codes are there to protect the public from faulty work," he added.

The moratorium only applies to residential properties and to property owners who voluntarily make application to legalize the existing conditions.

Those who are found to have construction underway without the required permits and those who do not take advantage of the moratorium will be obligated to pay the $1,190 maintain fee as usual.

The above information was submitted by the Village of Rockville Centre.