About a month ago, we had our final inspection on our cellar remodel. We added a 3 fixture bathroom (shower, sink, toilet) and a laundry room. That level of our home is currently rated as a cellar, but it has the qualifications needed to eventually be upgraded to a livable basement. We were advised by several expeditors to not look into upgrading the space until we're ready to sell, since upgrading it to living space will increase our taxes.

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Anyways, the bathroom/laundry room reno is lawful, permits were applied for and granted. In October, we learned that while our contractor was being a slow awful person (seriously awful, will never work with him again), the laws changed so that now when new gas appliances are installed during a reno, the plumber (of all people) has to inspect the gas line/other details. So we had to have the plumber in AGAIN in November and because the contractor is a POS, we failed due to several things we'd have easily fixed beforehand, had our contractor not sucked. We finally had the plumber back at the beginning of December and passed.

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Since then, I have been following up weekly with the expediter on getting the permits closed.

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Week 1 - Expediter said that the plumber hadn't submitted his paperwork yet. Ok fine. Call back next week.

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Week 2 - Expediter said that the plumber submitted his paperwork, but city hadn't approved it yet. Once city approves the paperwork, Expediter can submit both the plumbing and electrical permit paperwork to the city to close the job. Call back next week.

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Week 3 - Expediter said that the city approved the plumbing paperwork, so now expediter can file to close the permits. Call back next week.

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Week 4 (this week) - Expediter said that when he submitted the paperwork, the city disputed the shower. The shower that they agreed we could legally install earlier this year. So now the expediter is saying that the city wants him to get someone (I think he said the commissioner? Could that be true?) to sign some form, and then he resubmits. Anyways, once again, call back next week.

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At this point, frankly, I am freaking out a bit. Is this normal? Is there any way that the city can refuse to sign off on the job? Is there anything more I can do? The permits expire in April and May of this year, so we're not down to the wire time-wise...yet.

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The expediter doesn't seem bothered, but it's not his house and I've never heard him be bothered about anything, so I don't know if that's a good sign or if it's just that he honestly doesn't give a shit.

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This job has been a nightmare. It was supposed to take 2-3 months tops. And I already knew that construction timelines are bullshit, so I expected 6-8 moths. It has been a year and a half. And we're FINALLY done, we have learned a TON and I now know that for future renovations, if we can't find a company who will sign better contracts that involve penalties if they don't complete on time, to not bother trying to do the reno; it's not worth the stress.

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Now all that's left is to close to goddamn permits and I'm absolutely terrified that somehow this isn't going to happen and we'll be screwed and forced to gut the floor or something.

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If anybody who has experience with the Brooklyn DoB or Expediters could talk me down, I'd really appreciate it. Even just having a basic idea of what the worst case scenario is would be great.

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(I have debated calling my Expediter to ask him, but he has a really strong accent and his phone connection is crap. Even basic conversations are really hard to understand, and he doesn't work in an area that I can easily get to without taking a day off of work, which is part of why I'm asking here)