<p>cb, You should go down there today, if not yesterday, to discuss the “Plan” they required. Those document mongers are going to get you into trouble, if a plan is not in place. In dealing with getting a permit to fix an expired or uncompleted permit is not a trivial stuff. I spent hours in the building/planning department to figure it out. They let me to take it down, but in your case, you will have a headache and it will drag you down on the sale of your listing. Or you can disclose to the buyer, a permit is issued at the city for the garage, you need to fix it. The buyer can either take it as is, walk away, have you fix it before closing, or take the cost off from the purchase price. IMHO, no one is going to take it as is if the price they pay is market price.</p>
<p>I have to eat my words, the house with foundation problem which has been on the market for more than 50 days is in contract as soon as I walked out that afternoon. However, I still have the suspicion a soil problem existed in the neighborhood. Some of the cracks are showing from the uneven concrete patio or walkway.</p>
<p>I guess it takes longer for buyers to figure out the repair cost. Most of the houses in that area, but not in that neighborhood, are pending in less than 10 days.</p>
<p>Can’t go into City today because they are closed every other Friday. My feeling is they just have to have some piece of paper in their file to make it complete. I’m going to review requirements with inspector on Monday.</p>
<p>He promised me it doesn’t have to be “blueprints”. I’m guessing that these houses are so old, and they don’t have any records in their file, that they are desperate for something in the file that they can use in the future.</p>
<p>This is the same City that forced me to drive all over the County to get original building records in ordrr to prove to them that thr original garage existed. I finally ended up at County Assessor who had some records and handwritten notes on their property sheet used for value appraisals over the years. </p>
<p>The County was baffled about why I had to come to their office. This little City was incorporated in 1912 and should have their own building record history. Maybe there was a fire or something but it doesn’t seem fair that it’s the homeowner’s problem to go find their records? Couldn’t they just pay the County to get copies of their history?</p>
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<p>Here is your problem right there, I had the exact same thing… If that permit was not closed, you might have a violation lien on your title and you need to deal with it. You’d better off NOT going to the contract or even attempt to sell before you have the problem solved.</p>
<p>I had to scramble to have that taken care of the last moment and it was not pretty. Now I still have the headache to take care of the sewer lateral. Had I know all these, I would take care of those BEFORE even put it on the market and when I cleared everything, I will ask for more money and I know I can get it.</p>
<p>OTOH, I think you are so lucky that you DID NOT take down the garage. Because that permit will surface in a title search and then you have to build a new garage for the buyer. The worst case is that it did not surface in a title search and after you sold the property, the new owner eventually will find out and you have a bigger problem then, because that might invoke a lawsuit.</p>
<p>An open permit will not ever show up in a title search. The open permit will just expire at the end of 12 months if there is not any work or inspections. The only time that something clouds the title is if the City issues a ‘code violation letter’ to an owner and the owner does not respond in the timeframe. If the City does not get any response or resolution to a code violation then they have a right to record the code violation in the County records in order to collect the code violation fee and put everyone on notice about the property. Not until there is something recorded in the County records would anything ever get involved in the title. It usually takes years for the governmental entity to get around to recording something against title, it’s got to be pretty serious. It’s rare that they would record a lien for a patio cover issue - guess you got lucky.</p>
<p>If every open permit/not finaled permit got recorded against title there would be thousands and thousands.</p>
<p>I have discussed the open permit with the City and they told me to just let it die it’s natural death. No action required. My new permit supersedes the original permit and everything is kosher.</p>
<p>For disclosure reasons my only issue right now is to get this repair permit ‘finaled’ and closed before we close escrow. That is very doable (since I’m not even in escrow yet). </p>
<p>In our County, even if you do a full room addition with permits and have it finaled, it takes months and months for the data to flow from the City building departments over to the County Assessor. The real estate MLS databases pull data periodically from the County Assessors (not the building departments) and who knows how often they pull that data. So, when I listed a house that was legally a 3 bedroom/2 bath with 1,500sf, it kept pulling up to the buyers and everyone as a 2 bedroom/1 bath with 1,000sf. I had to give them the building inspection card and show final signoff, but still none of the government databases had the accurate information yet.</p>
<p>A Stop Order, to me it is a code violation, not sure if it will be overlooked by your city. Did you find out why there is a stop order? Otherwise, why we are here to discuss the re-roofing? Have you looked your prelim title? Any violation there?</p>
<p>And I used the word “might” didn’t I? In my case, the county recorded the violation.</p>
<p>I am fully understand the room addition part, the assessors office is always one year or more behind and the title company records are not always uptodate. In fact, in my duplex case, I added(re-configured) the rooms and added two bedrooms and one walk-in closet. It was a two bedroom upstairs and one bedroom downstairs house. There was no footage expansion.</p>
<p>The derelict garage became a derelict garage because prior owner had SIX layers of old roof on the garage and with a huge rain the old trusses and rafters gave way. The roof caved in. Prior tenant told me (they came over for the Open House and were just blown away) that all of her personal items stored in garage were completely ruined and the landlord didn’t even care.</p>
<p>The prior landlord hired some ‘handyman’ guy to start working on the roof. The neighbor saw the guy and asked if he had a permit. The neighbor called the City and complained. The ‘Stop Work’ was issued because they were working without a permit. That forced the prior owner to go into City and pull the roofing permit and then he just gave up. So, it wasn’t because of the permit that the Stop Work was issued, it was to require the owner to go get a permit. </p>
<p>The City does not have a right to record any lien on the property because the owner did what he was required to do - pull a permit.</p>
<p>I have full title insurance already from the purchase of the property since it was a regular purchase transaction from a Seller.</p>
<p>Title company will insure a property with violation, it is the bank won’t allow it. Actually my buyer wants to waive the violation, after they found that the violation is the patio cover, not the roof.</p>
<p>Since you’ve got the permit, you just have to finish it and pass the inspection, as long as you understand section 7044 and hoping the best.</p>
<p>It turned out I did sign the section 7044 with my owner builder permit, I just did not read it… :)</p>
<p>For anyone in California, here’s the scoop as the City explained it to me. I told them on Tuesday that I was selling the house. I explained that I was worried about signing the section of the owner permit with rye vague “one year sale clause”. He explained that it was a State law, not a local law. The local jurisdictions do not enforce the law and have nothing to do with it. They are required to put the language on the forms but they don’t care.</p>
<p>Also, it doesn’t prohibit the sale of the property but puts the owner/builder on warning that they could be liable for the work. But I feel liable for my work anyway so it doesn’t change my strategy. Their explanation was a relief, I thought the sale was prohibited or something, or the State would come around checking on permits or something. Protection from loonies trying to sue is difficult to try to safeguard against. I just have to forge on</p>
<p>So is the leaded paint. It is enforced by EPA.</p>
<p>Has any one NOT sign the leaded paint waiver when they sell the house? I have never seen an owner says they have leaded paint and buyer has to take care of the it.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with do some thing skirting the law, but if you get caught, the consequences is pretty severe. I was told that Lead Paint violation is $8,000 per day for not conforming.</p>
<p>here is some thing for a laugh:</p>
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<p>Note this is HUD stats, not EPA stats.</p>
<p>The City finally came out and looked at the garage!!! He was very nice and we are moving along. Here is what we did to the garage (see before pictures in the group) before he came:</p>
<p>1) Dug trench around old stem wall and formed some Cement All in areas that needed patching and reinforcement
2) Removed entire base plate and bolts from stem wall
3) Drilled holes in old stem wall (this got a little dicey in areas) and installed new bolts with epoxy
4) Put on double set of 2x4 pressure treated lumber for new baseplate under all walls
5) Put in new studs (most of them were termite damaged or rotten)
6) Re-nailed old siding back onto the studs - this was pretty hilarious on the side of the garage where there is only 11 inches to neighbor’s fence. It involved my lead hanging down from top of garage wall with me holding his ankles (and some other bracing/safety straps) while he nailed 
7) Put in new top plate across top of walls
8) Installed new window</p>
<p>The City Building Inspection Supervisor was good about not making us bring this thing completely to current code. We are just ‘repairing’ an existing garage built in 1925. Technically, the building still was supposed to still be 50% good to repair. They were very nice about not pushing that rule. He asked us to add some A35 metal straps to the studs to anchor them better to the new base plates. but, the hard part is that we are going to have to put metal flashing around the base plate/stem wall 6" below grade with some jiffy seal sticky flashing. This will require re-trenching around the garage and putting backer plates between the studs. He said this would be required because the old siding is just nailed to the studs and there’s nothing keeping critters/bugs/water from getting through the cracks.</p>
<p>Also, we are required to come up with some kind of garage door so that cars can get into the building, otherwise we are not a garage. This is going to require a new header across the garage door opening because prior build had some pieces of 2 x 6 - have no idea how the door opening has not bowed down or collapsed. But, I already have a bid from a garage company for new roll up door and spring system, installed for only $500.</p>
<p>Best part is we can keep the old siding. And, they are not going to require a new concrete slab floor, although he strongly recommended it!</p>
<p>Nice coralbrook. Have the potential buyers commented on the garage?</p>
<p>I am SOOOOOO glad I did not get the county involved with my siding… :)</p>
<p>We have four interested buyers now, but no written offers. The buyers seem to be focused on zoning for the property - I guess they want to build a two on one or something? So, we spent most of today getting zoning info to reply to their questions. Once again, two different answers from the same City.</p>
<p>We’re still trying to get the absolute correct answer. I know that my neighbors, who have built brand new 5 years ago, have a legal rental unit attached to their garage in the back. The house directly behind in the alley has a rental unit on top of the garage. This would leave you to believe that there can be a rental unit?? Cannot get straight answer from City.</p>
<p>None of these buyers has asked one question about the garage. I have no idea why they do not want specifics about what and how it is going to be repaired.</p>
<p>They will, once they finalized their thoughts on the main building and when you have a contract or closed to it.</p>
<p>Nothing will be overlooked in a real estate transaction.</p>