Legal Council + Small Steps Forward

Someone's Thumb is on the Scales

I spoke with two different attorneys: one last Friday and one on the previous Monday. Both of them gave me pretty much the same advice. They said my best course of action would be to work something out with the City of Tampa concerning the windows that the previous owners installed, either through an after-the-fact permit or by some other means. They also both said if that didn't work, I would likely have a claim against the previous owners and in terms of recovering damages, that would be our best option.

The whole situation is just infuriating. My wife and I would likely never have purchased our house if we knew there was un-permitted work being done by the previous owner (FHD Holdings) and their contractor (Vintage Design and Construction, Inc). Everything appeared to be on the up and up. The City cleared FHD Holdings and the house of the City Code issues associated with the windows, there was a renovation permit that was opened, inspected and closed, and no specific permit or building code violations were disclosed otherwise. But now, in the worst case scenario, my wife and I may be looking at spending tens of thousands of dollars to replace every window in our house before we can improve it at all because the City is blocking our permit requests until we get the windows permitted.

The crazy thing is these are the same windows that we bought the house with. The same windows that a City inspector saw at least once, if not twice or more under the previous owner where not only was a violation not raised, but one was cleared - the very same windows. 

We had initially resolved to take this issue to City Council. But after talking with someone from Tampa City Code, I decided to wait and see how our permit fared. If the permit goes through, this was all just a massive and time consuming inconvenience. However, if the permit doesn't go through for some reason and we are forced to replace all of the windows in our house, that's when we take it to City Council.

One Small Step for Windows

Q: How is my house like a computer?

A: Both have problems with Windows. :)

I was going to post something last week, but nothing really happened last week. We were still waiting on the window detail from our Architect and we hadn't heard back from the pavers. Well, 3 days ago we got the window details back from our Architect and I am (cautiously) happy to report that our bathroom permit is now being processed. That basically means, we will know whether or not our permit was approved sometime next week.

For those of you just starting to follow along, the basic rundown is: 

• The previous owners installed new windows without a permit.
• Their work was inspected by the City of Tampa after it was completed.
• The City of Tampa did nothing to the previous owners, effectively condoning the window installation.
• We purchased our house less than 3 weeks after the City of Tampa inspected it.
• After we closed, the City of Tampa re-inspected our house and "cited" us for un-permitted windows.
• We requested a permit to create a 2nd bathroom out of existing interior space.
• The City of Tampa added the windows that the previous owner installed (the same windows that were in the house when they inspected prior to us closing on the house) to our bathroom permit.
• We scrambled to get the window detail added to our bathroom permit request.

I'm not saying that something shady was was going on with the inspection that happened just prior to our closing, but it really looks like something shady was going on with the inspection that happened just prior to our closing. And at the very least, FHD Holdings and Vintage Design and Construction knew about it.

The Alley

I met with the pavers and the inspector at the alley behind my house this morning. I got some additional details concerning the construction of the alley from the pavers, which I was able to update the permit with. The big step forward is that it looks like remediation will be possible. But the biggest step is that everyone showed up and they are willing to play ball to (1) satisfy the City and (2) let us and our neighbors keep the alley. 

My personal feelings are that this whole thing is nuts. It's a 10ft wide alley that has a pretty significant downhill slope. Now, the City argues that the water will sheet off the sides during a heavy rain because it doesn't have an inverted crown. But I can tell you that reality doesn't seem to agree with the City. We've had two hard rains since that alley was installed and when it rains, the water rolls downhill into the street. Imagine that - water rolling downhill. Who woulda thunk it? 

I'm sure it's not news to anybody that the City doesn't always often make sense. However, in this case, it's likely gonna cost us. That's right. We want to keep the alley and have off-street parking available. So, we're likely going to have to cough up to make that happen. Our other option would be to try to make the pavers eat the cost of remediation, which is not the best course of action for anyone involved. Why? They may be willing to take a small haircut on the remediation work. But are they going to take say a $2,500 loss on a $4,500 residential paving job? Probably not - I wouldn't. And if we insist and attempt to recover the money we spent with them then what do we have? We would have to find someone else and it very well might cost us even more. And if we can't do that then we are stuck with a non-compliant alley.

No, they showed up today and they are willing to play ball. So, we are too. Neither of us are happy about it. But I am confident that we will come to an agreement for the remediation of the alley that will be palatable for both of us. It might sting a little - heck, it already has. But nobody is going to walk away with scars.