As Realtors, looking out for our Buyers’ and Sellers’ interests, I think we would do them a great service to immediately implement a procedure where all plans and permits are recorded through the title companies,   Just like CC&R’s, deed restrictions, easements, the plans and permits would be preserved, long after specific properties have changed hands once, twice or more times.

Too often, we run into issues where cities dig in their heels and state there was no permit for whatever.  An example, I sold one house in Monterey three times over the years.  The first two sales had City Inspection Reports and passed without an issue.  The third time, the City said there was a porch enclosure without permit.  The neighbor who lived next door for over 30 years stated the house had been the same during the entire time she lived there.  When I approached the City with the two prior City Reports and the neighbor’s written statement, their response was “we are not responsible for our errors”. (Only the governmental agencies can get away with a statement like this.)  The net result was that the Seller had to pay thousands of dollars to hire a structural engineer, architect, contractors and pay for a permit to bring the porch up to current code requirements.

Another example – the City Inspector said the second bath was without permits, it had to be taken out.  No one had the plans on the house that was over 50 years old (the City has no documentation and the owner/builder was deceased).  Luckily, the agent representing the Buyer had gone thru this before and was smart enough to check with the Assessor’s office.  As it turned, out the Assessor had been taxing the house with two baths.  Once we got the document from the Assessor, the City had to back off.  What astounds me is that cities can make a statement without documentation – they no longer had the building permit or plans yet, were able to state there is no record of a 2nd bath.

How many Sellers have been blackmailed into paying for something, at point of sale, that was legally permitted but no one had the old records?

Water Management was a major recent issue.  The home I sold was going to the third owner.  Water Management had come to the house at the time of sale from owner one to owner two.  At the time of the sale to my Buyer, Water Mgmt. declared that we had seven wash basins, their records only showed five.  The current owner stated that the house was exactly as the way it was when the purchased it (did not add two wash basins).  We had two sets of plans that showed seven wash basins.  Without the “permit stamp”, Water Mgmt. did not want to accept the plans as a “legal record”.  Phil Smith went to Water Mgmt. and Water Resources and bought permits for the two “additional sinks” in order to get the transaction closed.  Water Mgmt. also showed one showerhead in the Master bath – it had dual showerheads.  We got a letter from a contractor stating that the plumbing fixtures in the Master shower were discontinued in the 80’s.  That did not matter, Water Mgmt. took the position it was added and needed a permit.  Phil Smith went to Water Mgmt. and paid for the second showerhead, which resulted in a deed restriction. I went to the Mty County Building Dept. because the County Building Report showed that the plans had been microfilmed.  Unfortunately, the County got rid of the microfilm.  I went to the Assessor’s office, they only had the number of baths, no fixture count.

(Mty County Building said they will only keep the plans for about three months after the permit is finalled and will not microfilm.)

My Buyer and I requested a meeting with Water Mgmt.  We went in armed with the plans, the contractor’s letter and photos of all the baths.  Showed them the photos which helped our case that the prior inspector may have missed two sinks if they ran through quickly.  We were able to convince them that (a) it appeared that the sinks and showerhead were all original and (b) they made an error on their prior inspection.  The Seller did get some of his money back from the additional permit fees and we were able to get the deed restriction released.

I believe Water Mgmt. went on the basis of the original permit application which showed 5 sinks when, in fact, 7 sinks were built into the house.  Probably what happened, they used that for their basis and just kept going with the original application document, not paying attention to what was built.

Had we had recorded plans and permits, we could have saved many hours on everyone’s part, gas and unnecessary permit fees and a lot of aggravation.  It demonstrated to me how careless the government agencies are and Sellers are forced to pay for something that was already permitted.  The only way to avoid these issues is for owners to record their documents with the title companies so there is a permanent record.  It could all be so simple.

Sincerely,

Lore Lingner
Realtor, Previews Property Specialist
Coldwell Banker Del Monte Realty
www.LoreLingner.com
Lore@LoreLingner.com ]]> http://mcarforum.com/2008/09/recordswhat-records/feed/ 2