Pillar guide · 12 min read

Pre-Purchase NYC Condo Inspection Checklist: Public-Record Edition

By NYC Property Audit · Published October 30, 2025 · Updated April 19, 2026

A NYC condo purchase is the moment your money becomes hardest to reverse. Once you sign the contract and put down the 10% deposit, walking is expensive. This checklist is what runs BEFORE you sign — when a public-record red flag still costs you nothing to walk away from.

We've split this into three phases: pre-offer (10 minutes, free), pre-contract (1 hour, $14.99 if you buy a Pro audit), and pre-closing (your attorney's job — but you bring the receipts).

Phase 1 — The 10-minute pre-offer scan

Do this BEFORE you submit an offer. If anything in this phase is red, walk before you get emotionally attached.

1. Building open-violation count

Pull the building's total open HPD + DOB + OATH violation count. Free audit here →

Thresholds for a NYC condo building:

0-5 open — normal. Don't worry.
5-15 open — investigate categories. Some are routine (sidewalk shed signage, missing window-guard certificates). Multiple Class C is different.
15-40 open — pattern of deferred maintenance. Likely correlates with a special assessment coming.
40+ open — building has serious management issues. Walk or expect a big assessment within 18 months.
Active critical safety order — hard stop. Don't proceed until cured.

2. Building OATH balance

Unpaid OATH judgments become liens that transfer at closing. The buyer inherits them.

$0-$2,000 — clean.
$2,000-$10,000 — fine, but build into negotiation.
$10,000-$50,000 — pattern. Get it cured before closing.
$50,000+ — at this size, NYC can tax-lien-sale the lot. Get a real-estate attorney before going further.

3. Last arm's-length sale price + year

Pull the unit's last sale on ACRIS. If the unit sold within 24 months, you can compare the seller's purchase price to their asking price. A 30%+ markup in under 2 years suggests speculation; a sub-comp asking price suggests urgency to sell (sometimes financial distress).

How to look up ACRIS ownership history →

4. Active sidewalk shed

A shed up 12+ months signals a coming special assessment. Building-wide facade work runs $100K-$2M+. The cost is distributed across unit owners proportional to shares. For a typical $1.5M condo, expect $5,000-$25,000 in assessments within 1-2 years of closing if there's an active Unsafe filing.

5. Active DOB stop-work or vacate orders

A full stop-work blocks all construction in the building, often blocking lender funding at closing. Lenders sometimes require the order be lifted before funding the mortgage.

NYC stop-work orders explained →

Phase 2 — Pre-contract deeper review (1 hour)

Do this AFTER your offer is accepted but BEFORE you sign the contract of sale. Bring these findings to your real-estate attorney.

6. Full ownership chain on the unit

ACRIS lists every deed, mortgage, and lien on the unit since the original sponsor sale. Look for:

Multiple short-hold owners (sub-3-year flips suggest speculation)
Recent mortgage with no corresponding sale (refinance — normal, but the dollar tells you what the lender thinks the unit is worth)
Active liens not yet released (tax liens, mechanic's liens, judgment liens — all transfer at closing if not cleared)
Existing mortgage balance (subtracted from purchase price at closing if the seller still has a loan)

7. Tax history (5-year trend)

DOF publishes 5 years of assessment + tax history per BBL. What to look for:

Stable +3-5% YoY — normal NYC trajectory.
Spike (15%+ YoY) — an exemption (J-51, 421-a) expired or the building was reclassified. Future tax burden may be higher than the listing says.
Drop — usually means an exemption just started. Will the exemption still be active when you're paying tax in 5 years? Check the expiration date.
"Tax abated" — many new-construction condos have 10-25 year 421-a abatements. Know when yours expires and what your tax will be when full assessment kicks in.

8. Building financial signals (proxy)

Public records don't include the building's balance sheet — that's in the offering plan and the most recent financial statements (request from your attorney). BUT public records DO show proxies:

Total building OATH balance — high means inattentive ownership
Total open violations — high means deferred maintenance
Permits filed in last 24 months — show what work the building has invested in
Sidewalk shed permits — coming special assessment

Cross-reference these with the offering plan numbers your attorney will request.

9. FEMA flood zone

Zone X is the cheapest insurance category. Zones AE and VE require flood insurance per most lender policies. Annual flood premium in AE/VE: $700-$3,500 depending on elevation and unit floor.

FEMA flood zones explained →

10. Certificate of Occupancy current?

Make sure the building has a CURRENT C of O — not a Temporary C of O that's been renewed for 8 years. Some buildings sell on TCOs forever because the sponsor never finished the punch list. Read more on Certificate of Occupancy →

Phase 3 — Pre-closing (your attorney's job, but you bring the receipts)

Your attorney is going to run the lien search, title search, and offering plan review. You bring them:

The Pro audit PDF (15 pages of public-record summary — saves them 1-2 hours of paralegal time)
The list of open violations you flagged in Phase 2 and want addressed in the contract
Your specific commitments asks: "Seller will cure violations X, Y, Z before closing" or "Seller will credit me $X at closing for assessments expected within 12 months"
Any title-document anomalies you noticed (recent deed changes, mortgage discharges that don't appear, etc.)

Questions to ask your attorney

"Will the open violations transfer to me at closing?"
"What's the building's current reserve fund balance and pending capital projects?"
"Is there a board-approved special assessment in the next 12 months?"
"What does the offering plan say about future capital projects?"
"What does the last 3 years of board minutes say about building maintenance?"

Pull the building's full audit

Every fact in Phase 1 + 2 is one click away.

Run a free audit on the building's address →

The Pro report ($14.99) gives you the 15-page PDF that's the easiest thing to hand to your attorney before contract review — it consolidates everything into one document instead of 5 portal screenshots.

For broader due diligence beyond condos, see our NYC building due-diligence checklist. For the violation lifecycle and class meanings, HPD violation classes.