Stop Work Order on a NYC Property You Are Buying or Selling

A stop work order from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) does not legally stop you from selling or buying a property. No law we found bars a deed from being signed or recorded while one is in effect. But the order stays with the site after the sale, and no covered work can happen there until DOB lifts it. Whether the deal closes with an order still active is decided by the contract and the buyer’s lender.

This guide covers the five boroughs only. A stop work order is a DOB tool under City law. Westchester, Long Island and the rest of the state use local building departments with their own rules.

What a stop work order is

A stop work order (often shortened to SWO) is a DOB order that halts construction at a site. DOB says it issues one when an inspector finds unsafe work or unsafe conditions. Common reasons in DOB’s stop work order guide include:

Work without a required permit, or with an expired permit
Work that doesn’t match the approved plans
The contractor’s insurance has run out
The inspector was refused access to the site
An injury, a collapse, or debris falling onto a public area

There are two kinds:

Full stop work order. All work stops, except repair work DOB allows to make the site safe.
Partial stop work order. Only certain work, or work in one area of the site, must stop.

A written order must be posted at the property, and it is a public record. Under the City’s building code rules, the owner must keep it posted until DOB lifts it.

A stop work order usually comes with at least one violation or summons for the underlying problem. Those are separate records with their own steps to clear (see NYC property violations at closing).

How to find out if there is one

The order includes instructions for scheduling a reinspection and getting it lifted (NYC 311). A buyer may never see the order itself, so the public records below are where it shows up.

Where to look	What it shows
DOB Stop Work Order Map	Orders issued or lifted in the past two years, marked active full, active partial or rescinded
BIS complaints list	The complaint that led to the order, with a code showing the order was served or lifted
OATH Summons Finder	Any summons for the underlying work or for ignoring the order

The Stop Work Order Map covers only the last two years. For older orders, look at the complaints for the property in BIS, DOB’s older Buildings Information System. Each complaint has a disposition code, a short code for how DOB handled it. DOB’s code list includes:

A3: full stop work order served
L1: partial stop work order
L2: stop work order fully rescinded (lifted)
L3: stop work order partially rescinded
H3: violation issued for failing to obey a stop work order

A served order with no later “rescinded” code is a sign it may still be active. For a step-by-step tour of BIS, DOB NOW and the other systems, see how to check a NYC property before contract.

If DOB could not get in

Sometimes a complaint shows that the inspector could not inspect. DOB’s codes separate “unable to gain access” (no one there) from “access denied” (someone refused), each with a first and second attempt. A complaint closed with no-access codes means DOB has not inspected the condition the complaint describes.

Refusing an inspector entry is itself one of the reasons listed in DOB’s guide for issuing a stop work order.

What it costs to ignore one

Doing covered work while an order is in effect carries a DOB civil penalty of $6,000 for the first offense and $12,000 for each later one (DOB, stop work orders). DOB will not lift the order until these penalties are paid. They don’t apply to repair work DOB has allowed to make the site safe.

These penalties are on top of any OATH penalty. OATH, the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, is the City’s court that decides summonses. DOB can also write a violation, or a criminal court summons, for failing to obey the order. Anyone who knows about the order and lets the work continue is in violation, not only the contractor. DOB says it makes surprise visits to sites with active orders.

If the order was for work without a permit, DOB also charges a separate penalty for the unpermitted work. It is a multiple of the permit fee. DOB’s 2017 notice sets it at six times the fee for a one- or two-family home, with a $600 minimum and a $10,000 maximum. For other buildings it is 21 times the fee, with a $6,000 minimum and a $15,000 maximum. An owner can ask DOB to waive or reduce these penalties in some cases on DOB’s L2 form.

How a stop work order gets lifted

DOB calls lifting an order “rescinding” it. DOB lists these steps:

Fix the conditions in the order, or file the documents DOB requires. For work without a permit, that means getting a permit first. The work cannot resume until the permit is issued and the order is lifted.
Certify that the related violations are fixed, if DOB requires it. This is done with a Certificate of Correction, a filing in DOB NOW: Safety showing the problem was corrected (DOB, Certificate of Correction FAQs).
Ask the DOB unit that issued the order for a reinspection. For borough enforcement orders, that is the Appointment Request Form, emailed to the borough’s construction enforcement unit. For construction safety orders, it is the Construction Safety Enforcement form.
Pay any civil penalties owed.
Contact the issuing unit to have the order rescinded.

The appointment forms ask for the requester’s contact details and don’t limit who may send them. Getting a permit for the work does require a filing by a licensed or registered professional (see open permits and a NYC sale). DOB publishes no standard timeline for lifting an order.

A Certificate of Correction can be filed by the owner even if the owner wasn’t named on the violation. DOB says a new owner must attach a copy of the deed. DOB won’t approve one until all DOB civil penalties on it are paid or waived.

Does it block the sale?

No law we found makes lifting a stop work order a condition of selling, signing or recording a deed. The same is true of open permits (open permits and a NYC sale).

A stop work order is not a lien, a money claim against the property. In NYC title reports, DOB searches are generally returned for information only and are not insured. So the title company reports the order but does not clear it or insure against it. Unpaid OATH penalties tied to the same work are a different matter: they can become judgments or liens that must be dealt with at closing (see NYC property violations at closing).

What can hold up the deal:

The contract. The standard New York contract form makes the seller comply with violations and government orders noted or issued by the contract date. The seller must hand over the property free of them. An order issued before signing can fall under that clause. An optional paragraph also makes the seller pay City money obligations that arose before closing. Riders, the extra pages added to the contract, often change both. Your signed contract controls.
The lender. Lender requirements are not law and vary. An active order usually means unfinished or unpermitted work, which the appraisal and the lender’s review can flag. See the lender section of open permits and a NYC sale.
The buyer. A buyer who closes with an active order cannot restart the halted work until the order is lifted.

If the order turns up late, the usual options are a holdback (money held back from the seller at closing), a credit, a delay or cancelling. See open items found days before closing.

What the buyer takes on

A stop work order is tied to the site, not to the seller. After closing:

The order stays in effect until DOB lifts it. No covered work can happen, whoever owns the property.
The underlying violations stay open on the building’s DOB record (see charges that follow the property).
The penalties still block the lift. DOB won’t lift the order until its civil penalties are paid, so a new owner who wants the work to restart may end up paying them unless the contract says otherwise.
Title insurance usually won’t pay to fix it. Building and zoning matters are outside a standard owner’s policy (see found a DOB violation after closing).

Sellers who want to avoid this can check for orders before listing; see the pre-listing checklist. For clearing the OATH summonses that often come with an order, see clearing OATH/ECB violations before you sell.

Details for attorneys and title professionals

Older DOB material. A DOB stop work order PDF still online lists penalties of $5,000 and $10,000. Those were raised to $6,000 and $12,000 by a 2017 City law. The current DOB pages and the City code give the higher amounts.
When DOB must lift an order. The City code says DOB lifts an order once the condition is corrected and the penalties or fines for breaking it are paid. If a violation is still pending, posting security for payment is enough. DOB can also lift an order issued in error, and may charge a fee for the inspection.
Pending state bill. A state bill would raise the penalties to $10,000 and $20,000. As of November 1, 2026 it sits in the State Senate’s Cities committee and is not law.
Contract paragraphs. In the 2000 standard residential contract, the duty to comply with violations and orders noted or issued as of the contract date is paragraph 10(a). The optional paragraph on City Administrative Code money obligations incurred before closing is 10(b).
Certificate of Correction filers. DOB lists the person named on the violation, a partner, an officer, director or managing agent of a corporate respondent, the owner, or a managing agent or contractor with a notarized designation letter from the owner.

Official sources

Korvane Title is preparing to launch in New York. It is not licensed as a title insurance agent and does not accept title orders. Content on this site is general information, not legal advice.