Does doing it the right way cost more than that ?
Like everything involving real estate inspections in NYC, it costs weeks or months, and the inspection agency's are criminally understaffed.
If they didn't know the risks of buying/building a building without a rent roll yet, then they should probably find something else to do for a living
It's also by renovation empty units...
So you put in all this money into improving a unit, and now you are on the hook for 2 more months of mortgage payments while the "paint drys" because the city can't get their act together...
You would think that HPD et al. would be making enough money from violations and inspections to be properly staffed, but the city just treats landlords as Piñatas, because it's NYC and they can get away with it.
This is Key:
Exactly. It's (usually) not about bypassing public safety rules, just the people implementing them.