On a couple of homes we are trying to fix up, city is saying they are too far gone and can not be repaired so they are saying they won’t issue the permits. Have a route that we are going on this but thought it was worth checking if anyone else had run into the issue and how they maneuvered it. There is no doubt the homes need a ton of work but thats all going to be done. Thanks in advance.
You may need to hire a municipal lawyer to assert your rights, but the city has no right to deprive you of your property rights in remodeling these homes. This comes up with us occasionally, but we always get it fixed by having our attorney call the city attorney. The inspector has gone beyond his authority.
thanks frank
You don’t need permits for maintenance. It’s best not to alert the city planning department at all. I would just do it and get it done. Let them put in a violation if they want to. Then hire the attorney. You’ve got the land-use rights anyhow so there is no sense spending any money unless they actually do put in a violation on you. Often enough, they will run their mouths and not take any action. That’s been my experience here. If you bring anything up with these types, they view it as asking permission and they see it as an opportunity to bully you or snatch away your land-use rights.
We’ve not run into such government over-reach… yet … but I’m sure we will before too long! We do have one city that refuses to let the electric company turn on electricity at a job site until the work is complete. This is insanity because it makes it difficult for our repair crews to use power tools to do the very repairs the city wants done. We’ve not (yet) hired an attorney to take on this idiocy; we just have our crews bring generators and get the work done and then call out the city inspector.Your mileage may vary,-jl-