Plumbing Permit Requirements for Building Owners in New York City- NYC DOB

Project Requirements for Owner: Plumbing

The work outlined below can only be performed by a Licensed Master Plumber.

Work you can do without a permit, Licensed Oil Burner Installer, or Registered Design Professional:

No Boiler work can be performed without either a work permit, or without hiring a Licensed Oil Burner Installer or Licensed Master Plumber.  However, a Registered Design Professional is not always needed for some minor work described below.

Work you can do without a permit

NYC Administrative Code Section 28-105.4 clarifies work exempt from permit. For example, replacing an existing plumbing fixture is minor work (AC 28-105.4.2) that could be performed without a work permit.

In general, a Licensed Plumber may do the following without a permit:

• Initial Emergency Work

• Minor Alterations and Ordinary Repairs

• Ordinary Plumbing Work

• Categories of work that may not require a permit (1 RCNY 101-14)

When you only need to hire a Licensed Master Plumber and obtain a permit

NYC Administrative Code defines Limited Plumbing Alteration as a repair of a plumbing or fuel gas piping system, which can only be performed by a Licensed Plumber. If the plumbing project exceeds Limited Plumbing Alteration work, a Professional Engineer (P.E.) or Registered Architect (R.A.) must submit drawings for approval by the Department to obtain a work permit.

When you need to hire a Registered Design Professional and Licensed Master Plumber to obtain a permit

If the plumbing project exceeds the work allowed under the categories of Limited Plumbing Alteration work as described in NYC Administrative Code, a P.E. or R.A. must submit drawings, for approval by the Department, to obtain a work permit.

Submission of job filing and obtaining a permit for plumbing work from the Department.

Effective October 15, 2018, all new LAA and Emergency Work Notifications (EWN) must be submitted in DOB NOW: Build. LAA filings submitted in DOB NOW will be permitted in real time.

Starting July 2019, all plumbing job filing and permit requests must be submitted in DOB NOW: Build. Applicants can no longer submit paper filing to the Department. As a result, all stakeholders, such as Registered Design Professionals, Licensed Master Plumber and Owners associated with a job filing will need to first register in eFiling in order to submit a filing or permit request in DOB NOW: Build. If previously registered in eFiling, use the existing eFiling username and password to access DOB NOW: Build. Owners will be required to access the system in order to provide approval for the filing.