Post: I just closed on a small home in North Park (about 650 sq. ft.). I planned a 2- 3 week rehab with paint, flooring, kitchen, bath, and moving a couple of interior walls just a little bit. Seemed like a very strightforward project.
On day one (actually before we were even the legal owners) we got a visit from a code compliance officer. He made my guys stop working and said we needed to get a combo permit. Fair enough. So I get my permit guy to swing by and take a look. Turns out the house has all kinds of potential issues. It has a garage and breezeway that do not appear to have ever been permitted (house was built in the 30's). We have no idea when they were added. The house sits on 2 lots (we bought both) with the main part of the house on one lot and the garage conversion on another. There is no room for setbacks as this is just 2 tiny lots. We figured the sq. footage was permitted as it all showed up on the tax rorecords (lesson learned). The permit guy says this is the worse situation he has ever come across as the compliance guy just opened a file on it.
All I want to do is some quick improvements and get the hell out of there. He is suggesting we might need to merge the lots which he says will cost $15k and 8 months just to get a yes or no answer. What can I do? Will the city ignore the unpermitted space and give me a combo permit for windows, a deck, etc.??
Comment: this could have been avoided by pulling the original building records down on Pacific Highway. It costs about 3 bucks and you have to have a signed note from the owner. Whatever is on that card is what the City will allow to get grandfathered in. Just looking at square footage on the tax rolls doesn't mean anything, they want their take money without regard to permits.
Here's an interesting post from a REI Club:
Post: I just closed on a small home in North Park (about 650 sq. ft.). I planned a 2- 3 week rehab with paint, flooring, kitchen, bath, and moving a couple of interior walls just a little bit. Seemed like a very strightforward project.
On day one (actually before we were even the legal owners) we got a visit from a code compliance officer. He made my guys stop working and said we needed to get a combo permit. Fair enough. So I get my permit guy to swing by and take a look. Turns out the house has all kinds of potential issues. It has a garage and breezeway that do not appear to have ever been permitted (house was built in the 30's). We have no idea when they were added. The house sits on 2 lots (we bought both) with the main part of the house on one lot and the garage conversion on another. There is no room for setbacks as this is just 2 tiny lots. We figured the sq. footage was permitted as it all showed up on the tax rorecords (lesson learned). The permit guy says this is the worse situation he has ever come across as the compliance guy just opened a file on it.
All I want to do is some quick improvements and get the hell out of there. He is suggesting we might need to merge the lots which he says will cost $15k and 8 months just to get a yes or no answer. What can I do? Will the city ignore the unpermitted space and give me a combo permit for windows, a deck, etc.??
Comment: this could have been avoided by pulling the original building records down on Pacific Highway. It costs about 3 bucks and you have to have a signed note from the owner. Whatever is on that card is what the City will allow to get grandfathered in. Just looking at square footage on the tax rolls doesn't mean anything, they want their take money without regard to permits.