[billfan]

Oh my goodness you have no idea how happy I am to report this….

Spent 3 very difficult hours down at the records office at the city, where it took 2 people to eventually help me find all the records on this house. They werent where they were supposed to be and if it werent for the second woman helping me I may never have found them. Turns out the original owner got permits for just about everything, including the addition! My contractor and I met with the inspector this morning and he actually approved most of the permit documentation I presented! His interpretation is allowing the addition AND the patio as permitted…the only sticking point is the wall that was put up in the kitchen to create the back third bedroom, so we’re modifying our current project plans to permit that wall…but since it’s not load bearing he doesnt think it’ll be an issue, just poking a hole to make sure the electricity in it is ok. He said he wouldnt even make us insulate any of it because it was previously approved without insulation (although of course he recommends insulating anyway, which we may do in the future when we have more money). He’s still making us lower the master bedroom window by an inch so it’s to code, which is just ridiculous, but we don’t have a choice on that. After that we should be free of all this mess. Thanks for all your help and comments! I had Ian the Permit Pro over and he was actually very helpful and knowledgeable, but I’m not sad to say that I didnt need his full services of re-building the entire back half of my house! Maybe now we can get some sleep and stop crying, ugh.

[billfan]

We had Ian Scattergood over to the house this morning. He was very knowledgeable and I’m sure he can help if we decide to go the route of bringing the house up to code, but it will cost us about $4k to have him draw up all the plans, plus $2k for permits, plus god knows how much for all the actual work. We just don’t have the money right now so I’m really hoping our councilman can help us. I sent them the inspector findings and they are supposedly going to help us work with the development office. I really don’t know what happens on Feb 18th (that’s the 30 day deadline that the inspector said we have to submit plans, which will certainly not happen)…I suppose it goes to code enforcement, and then who knows how that’ll go. We have about 5.5 months left on our current permit, which they wont sign off because of the addition issue. I dont know where the 30 days comes from. It all just seems so arbitrary. I suppose we could just not do anything until our permit is about to run out then ask for an extension or do the minimum to show that we’re trying, but it’s just so dumb…we shouldnt have to use silly loopholes or delay tactics. We should just be able to get a reasonable person to give us time and understanding…neither of which it seems the city has or is willing to give.

[billfan]

I would love to just “do nothing” but the senior inspector already said it will go to Code Enforcement in 30 days if I dont apply for a permit (which of course I dont have the money or nor the plans drawn up for…we dont even know specifically what needs to be done, and wont without digging up the kitchen floor into the concrete foundation to find out if there’s any mesh or rebar in it. If there is, it may not need to be a complete tear down, but if there isn’t, it would need to be completely re-done).

I have a meeting with Ian the “Permit Pro” on Monday so we’ll see how that goes. I’m a little skeptical but will play it by ear.

I also wrote a letter to my councilman in my district. He actually called this morning and his rep is working with me right now. They asked me to fax them the inspector findings and they are going to try to help me work with the development office to see what can be done.

I really want to do things the right way, but not when the city inspectors are being so aggressive and unreasonable, especially knowing that I’m not responsible for any of this mess. I just bought the house but to them the current owner is the current owner, they don’t care. Hopefully my councilman can help shed some light into this bad system and come up with some ways we can get some leniency.

[billfan]

Yes the sellers agreed to mediation in the contract, so that’s why we thought it’s be a good first step. My broker recommended this place but any other recommendations are appreciated:

http://www.realestatemediationcenter.com/

[billfan]

Yeah we had a home inspection and he found lots of little things, but didnt say anything (or didnt notice) about the addition. I had no idea, even looking through the house 3 times myself before buying it. But I’m told the home inspectors usually dont notice or say anything or are obligated to say anything. It doesnt really matter because I dont have any money to sue anyone. Best I can hope for is small claims court or mediation, not sure which is better though. I’m told that mediation is also binding so if that doesnt go well I may not have much other recourse. I have every line item of inspector findings, many of them we already had our contractor fix as a show of good faith (and at considerable additional cost…we’re already in the several thousands) even though the inspector refuses to sign off on my project. I’m going to take the full list down to the city to try to reason with someone and show that we fixed, or are fixing, everything he cited us for, where possible. He even cited us for the bedroom window being 3/4″ too high and wants the entire window lowered. Except for when completely cost prohibitive (mostly the addition he wants torn down) we made many of his changes, so I’m gonna hope that gets me some leniency with someone down at the inspection office. But since we already tried the supervising inspector (who is even worse than the original inspector) I’m not sure who else there is to reason with, but I’m gonna try.

[billfan]

San Diego County, The City of San Diego, North Park 92104. The inspector’s notice had this at the top:

Development Services Department
lnspection Services Division
9601 Ridgehaven Court, Suite 220

[billfan]

He just noted the unpermitted addition, saying that needs to be fixed asap (how the hell does one do a $60k job asap?) It’s the back half of the kitchen, the 3rd bedroom and back patio. He said based on his initial look, it’s not to code (it was added 20 years ago) and even doing a full investigation into how many violations there are would involve tearing up so much flooring, walls, and roofing….we “could” try to bring it up to code but since it’s a concrete slab foundation it would probably be cheaper to tear it all down (which you need permits for) and rebuild (which you need more permits for). The city inspector and supervising inspector that we called in both said the same thing. They are being so unreasonable and unrealistic it’s maddening. I feel like this is a perfect story for the Turko-files on KUSI where they expose horrible policies or people getting screwed over. All I did was buy a house, did my due diligence in looking at the tax records, and now I’m in danger of losing my house because I can’t afford these fixes, none of which I was responsible for doing. It’s such a horrible feeling that someone could get screwed like this.

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