[UCGal]

Did you ever get served preliminary notices from the subs when they started? By certified mail? If not, you are probably free and clear.

The sub has to serve a 20 day notice… if they serve it after work has started (or stopped) it can only look back 20 days total.

Since your work was complete 12/11, and it is now 1/27/12, it’s probably past the look back period.

When we had issues we got several threats of liens. A quick phone call stating that a prelim notice hadn’t been filed or was filed too late was enough to make the subs liens go away.

http://www.cslb.ca.gov/consumers/legalissuesforconsumers/mechanicslien/HowToPreventAMechanicsLien.asp

[UCGal]

That was very, very funny

[UCGal]

Who is providing mediation/arbitration? Is this through a consumer or government agency or is this something contractually required? (Arbitration clause.)

I’m not a fan of arbitration clauses. We learned the hard way that if the other party doesn’t pay their portion of the fees – the arbitration screeches to a halt. Your choice is walk away (and lose your portion of the fees you’ve paid) or pay their fees for them. And there’s no recourse (appeal). If the arbitrator makes a decision pulled out of their ass… oh well. They could make a decision that because it’s Tuesday that the person with the alphabetical first letter of the name wins… nothing you could do about it. No appealing to a higher court.

[UCGal]

dup

[UCGal]

It’s worth trying to negotiate with development services.

We had an issue with one interpretation of our project. We felt we met the letter and intent, and the initial reviewer did not. My husband was persistent, presented alternatives and compromises… We got our permit. But not without a lot of discussion.

(They made us jump through other hoops – but on the one issue that looked to kill our project from the start, they proved reasonable.)

If you are reasonable, and persistent, they will usually work with you.

[UCGal]

what jurisdiction are you in? (which county/city/township/whatever inspection/permit department are you dealing with?)

[UCGal]

I’m sorry you’re dealing with this.

What type of thing was not to code? Is it things that are structural or safety issues? Like faulty wiring? I’d be worried about not bringing it up to at least a minimum safety standard.

As far as the unpermitted work – I don’t have any advice. I’ve heard of people getting “forgiveness” after the fact *if* it passes current code… but if it doesn’t you may be screwed.

It’s never good when you have to go to court and have lawyers involved.

[UCGal]

Note – this is a 4 year old thread.

[UCGal]

Agreeing with the others.
But I *would* call the insurance company.

Also – if you are claiming the homeowners exemption for property taxes, technically you should notify the county. Most folks wouldn’t bother till they bought a different property that they wanted to claim the exemption on.

[UCGal]

I don’t have a lot of respect for Newt or his many wives… I do find it interesting that he wanted to open up the marriage 6 years after he started the affair.

But a candidates sex life is not why I’d vote for them. (Or against them).

If I were in South Carolina I’d be voting for Cain to throw my support to None-of-the-above/Colbert.

[UCGal]

Probably true that an HOA would have restricted it.
As it was the neighbors were very nervous until they saw that it was a nice design. We’ve gotten lots of complements from the neighbors, including the ones below us.

How did you know we have neighbors below us?

[UCGal]

Have you asked your agent or the listing agent?

[UCGal]

[quote=sdduuuude]Only experience I have is an analysis done by a friend of mine, who is a world-class decision modeler.

He concluded that, because energy is priced in tiers, buying enough panels to completely remove you from the grid is not money well spent.

Spend enough to drop your usage down to the lowest tier and that’s enough.[/quote]
I’ve reached the same conclusion.
Plus to go off grid you need an additional investment in inverters, batteries, etc.

The advantage of going off grid is that if someone trips over a wire in El Centro and knocks the entire So Cal into darkness – you’ll still have power. If you have panels, but are still tied to the grid, you lose power along with everyone else.

Our 5 year plan includes getting solar – but scaling it enough to charge our plug in car that’s also on our 5 year plan. And still be in the bottom tier.

[UCGal]

[quote=sdduuuude]From a legal perspective, why can’t you just call the renters your “roomates” ?

I don’t see the difference, really, between you living in the master bedroom or you living in the extra studio.

And you have an under-the-table, inside agreement that you will stick to the studio and they will stick to the main part of the house and share the yard. It could be awkward or convenient depending on the personalities, but they are just roomates.

Then, you can call it your primary residence but you rent a room to some people.

You’ll have to share mail, utilities, etc. just like roomates do.[/quote]
This seems logical.
The mail thing is definitely something to consider. If there’s no separate postal address for the secondary unit, you’d have to share mail.

[UCGal]

It’s a way of syncing files between computers using the “cloud”.

When I was putting together the details for my Sicily trip last summer I had a document that had everything – every confirmation number, contact info for the vacation rentals, car rental info, everything that I might ever need. I used drop box to move/sync it between my work, home, tablet, husbands computer.

Basically, you install the app on all the devices you want to sync between. Then if you update one of the files in your dropbox folder, it will get synced to the other machines when you log onto them.

[Author]

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