Certificate of Occupancy, TCO or Letter of No Objection: which one your building needs

Published October 6, 2026 · 6 min read · By Bulwark

Lenders, buyers, insurers and the city all want proof of what a building is legally allowed to be used for. In New York that proof comes in three forms, and getting the wrong one, or none, stops a sale, a refinance or a new tenant.

Certificate of Occupancy (CO)

Issued by DOB when construction or alteration is complete and the building complies with the approved plans and the code. It lists the legal use and occupancy of every floor. A new CO or an amended CO is required whenever the use, egress or occupancy changes, converting a store to apartments, adding a unit, changing a two-family to a three-family.

Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO)

Issued when a building is safe to occupy but open items remain, landscaping, a final elevator sign-off, an outstanding violation. TCOs are valid for 90 days and renewable, and each renewal needs the open items to be moving. A building that has been on a TCO for years is a building with a problem someone has been avoiding.

Letter of No Objection (LNO)

Buildings built before 1938 often have no CO at all; that is legal. To document the use, DOB will issue a Letter of No Objection stating that it has no objection to the current use, based on the records on file (I-cards, old applications, the tax map). It is not a CO, and it will not help if the current use differs from the records, in which case you need an alteration filing and a new CO.

What blocks a CO

• Open DOB violations and OATH summonses on the job or the building
• Permits never closed on prior work (an old Alt-2 with no sign-off)
• Missing inspections: electrical, plumbing, elevator, FDNY, special inspections
• Discrepancies between the drawings and what was built
• Unpaid DOB fees or civil penalties for work without a permit
• HPD or ECB items on the Schedule of Occupancy

How we get it

We pull the full DOB record, list what is blocking the certificate, and clear it in order: close old permits, resolve violations, book the inspections, file the Schedule of Occupancy, and attend the final. Owners usually come to us with a closing date; we work backwards from it. Permit and licence expediting covers COs, TCOs, LNOs and everything that leads to them.