<p>Can you just insulate and then put up a little structure around the whole thing with a little shingle gable roof and trellis-type sides? Painted to match the house?</p>
<p>Phone call to City Planning at beginning of project I was told by Planner that I was not"designated" historical house. Then they passed phone to someone who looked at map and says I am not subject to Historical Review. I noted date, times and names.</p>
<p>They apologized when I was at the desk and then brought out the district boundary map and showed me I was in it. </p>
<p>I have 2 choices at this point. Try to create plans and submit by tomorrow before I leave so that something will happen in my lifetime. Or, I am allowed to rebuild same overhang that was there before as"maintenance" with no permit or approval. My agent says just build overhang and move on. I am just sick about it. I wanted beautiful front porch for curb appeal and wasted time and money tearing off old overhang and setting new posts. Talk about another colossal mistake!!!</p>
<p>I’ve only worked once in our historical district. It was a 1950s house in a district of Victorians. I was doing a deck in the back. Such a waste of time. I did gently suggest they might want to adjust the district lines to lose the cluster of houses I was in. </p>
<p>I’ve been amazed that you didn’t have to submit architectural plans already. In our county most of what you’ve been doing could be done without stamped architectural plans - certainly not rebuilding the front porch. I can’t imagine the committee would have any issue with the redesign, the original house has nothing historically interesting about it at all.</p>
<p>I agree. By coincidence my neighbor is on the historical committee, which he warned me about when I first bought the property. I had a discussion with him this afternoon and he says that whatever I could put together would probably be approved. But, I don’t have time to put anything together and I don’t have time to wait until their next meeting that I would be allowed to submit - first week of December. That would mean I would have to wait until after first week of December to even start building front porch - pushing me to 2nd week of December to go to market. December is a very slow month - I have to get this thing to market by mid-November.</p>
<p>I’m afraid I have no choice, have to get to market.</p>
<p>coralbrook, I’m sorry you’ve had this stressful wrinkle in the process this week. I hope you enjoy your trip and things move smoothly from here on.</p>
<p>Well, I’m off early tomorrow for a long trip that has been planned forever. I cannot cancel the trip so I just have to let go and go way over schedule on this little mess. </p>
<p>This week we got the new flooring halfway installed. When I was shopping for the flooring several salesmen at different stores said that the majority of shoppers are going for the grey tone flooring. I thought long and hard and decided it would look very nice in this little house and would be kind of a ‘wow’ difference when buyers come into the property. Let’s just hope it’s someone young and hip that likes the grey flooring 
</p>
<p>We had to finish all our plaster touchup and painting/touchup before we could install the floors and that took a couple of days. Project is going to stand down for one week while I am gone and then the team is going to finish installing the new flooring, install baseboards, finish kitchen toekick and trim, and install lawn in front yard. </p>
<p>At this point I am just avoiding the issues with the front porch and the garage.</p>
<p>Budget overage has increased to $6,000 and it will just keep going at this point. My agent is still insisting we will get our asking price although I don’t know what is going to happen with the garage situation.</p>
<p>Oh, loaded just a couple more pictures onto the group photo site. Some of lighting and the flooring</p>
<p>wait, what are you going to do with the garage?</p>
<p>Here is my problem on the selling. </p>
<p>We are in contract to close in two weeks. Now, when I bought the property, I bought it from the auction and the bank gave me a “quite claim deed”, that is a deed without title search and title insurance. Well, when I sell the property, the title search is done and a prelim title is prepared for my review. Only at this time I found the county put a building violation on the record. I called the building department and found that Patio Cover (size 12’x30’) was done without permit and county wants me to tear it down or reapply for a permit.</p>
<p>How do they know there is a new patio cover? I certainly did not put it up. The previous owner did apply for a permit in 2003 and 2006 but had never got a final inspection approval and subsequently withdrawn from the county.</p>
<p>I know, never a dull moment.</p>
<p>Have a great trip coralbrook, hopefully it’ll help you take your mind off things once you’re out and about. :)</p>
<p>Good morning everyone from Paris where it is raining and we are just enjoying hanging in our apartment with views to Eiffel Tower and over Paris rooftops. </p>
<p>Artlover, I cannot believe the issue with code violation. That is going to be a nightmare!! I feel for you. Keep us posted how you are going to get out of that. I’m guessing buyers are going to say "but we bought a covered patio, you can’t tear it down! " which is probably your only choice at this point. Tearit down and give them a credit? Either way its probably not going to be 2 weeks to get that cleared off title.</p>
<p>I have decided overhang in front of house but still pondering garage issue. Might have City inspection for plumbing and tear down garage after they leave. My agent is trying to track down original records to see if garage was ever legally on property. Realist (official records connected to MLS) shows 2 car garage but there is no way that garage was built to permits unless it was 1925 bldg codes. Realist also shows covered patio which I have no idea where that is on property:) we need to find true records but I’m guessing they do not exist because they are so old.</p>
<p>artlover–since there was a permit for the cover and it’s only missing the final inspection, why can’t you just have it inspected? My D did this for closing on her house.</p>
<p>Gouf</p>
<p>I was told by the inspector better to tear it down. Not sure what will be expected if I apply for a new permit. The inspector implied that a new permit will take more time. </p>
<p>When you have a structure done without permit seven years ago , not sure if it will pass inspection today.</p>
<p>^^ If the previous person got a permit for the cover there’s a good chance it was built to code but for some reason they never actually called for the final inspection. Also, it’s a patio cover, which is pretty basic and should be fairly exposed - it shouldn’t take much to inspect it. You could do it yourself to start with or have a contractor check it first if you want. </p>
<p>If the inspector comes out and inspects it he’ll tell you if there’s anything wrong with it and what to do to mitigate it (I assume when they said ‘better to tear it down’ was something said over the phone without actually inspecting it). Worst case he’ll say it all has to be torn down and you’re no further behind than tearing it down to begin with.</p>
<p>I don’t think they will come inspect until you pay for new permit, submit plans and wait weeks for permit approval. Unless detail plans for patio cover aren’t required.</p>
<p>Please remember the permits were 7 or MORE years OLD and they were withdrawn and since the Patio Cover was never inspected, therefore the county put a LIEN on the property. It will require new plans, drawings, inspections and all nine yards to make it legal. The inspector think that will take a LONG time and I only have two weeks to close! The inspector suggested that I take it down so he can take the LIEN off from the title report.</p>
<p>Looks like your only option is to take it down, and offer the buyer either a credit or to rebuild it with proper permits after the closing, maybe with a holdback at the close.</p>
<p>Can it be taken down in such a way that you can put the same patio cover back up?</p>
<p>I’m curious - what does it cost to get a full title search done? Wouldn’t it make sense in a situation like this, where you are getting a quitclaim on a property with an unknown history, to do your own title search as soon as you buy it?</p>
<p>“Can it be taken down in such a way that you can put the same patio cover back up?”</p>
<p>Yes, but then I won’t be owning the house. At this moment, I am waiting for the buyer’s decision whether he wants to go through the permitting or take down.</p>
<p>I guess I could run a title search right after I acquired the property. I probably can have some title company to do it without much expenses, even though they will not be insuring it.</p>
<p>Wow, what a hassle! It scares me that my parents house, which they have done massive construction on in the last 53 years, has had no permits, I’d guess. Don’t know. What do they do, make you tear down a 4K square foot house?</p>