Our Journey Begins

Our House; Credit: MLS, October 2017

On November 20, 2017, my wife and I became house owners. It was our second foray into home ownership together, but the first time either of us had ever owned a detached house.

We purchased a 1925 bungalow in East Tampa, just north of Ybor City. Our last home, a condo, was firmly planted inside the main Ybor City historic district. Our new house, although only 16 blocks north, might as well have been in a different world.

Over the past 10 years, Ybor City has seen a gentrification boom due to development to the south and a revitalized atmosphere that featured bars, shops and restaurants instead of the clubs it was once known for. But with the interstate dividing Ybor, that atmosphere tails off quickly to the north, which is where we live.

Our idea behind moving to East Tampa was to get property that was attainable within our budget and that we could turn into a practical urban home. That certainly seemed possible in East Tampa. So, we purchased a partially renovated bungalow.

After Closing, The Work Begins

On the surface, the bungalow looked very cute and livable. Under the surface, that's were things got interesting. There was hidden termite damage that the last owners (FHD Holdings, if you're interested) caulked and painted over. The week after we purchased the property, the old paint started bleeding through the new paint, too. And it also turned out that there were some problems with the foundation/subfloor that could have literally resulted in us falling through the floor. I guess you could say that we had a little bit of a project on our hands.

Over the month following our closing, we painted the entire interior (with the help of friends), repaired the issues under the house, installed a security system and had new flooring installed. We also foamed all the windows, put screens on the gable and soffit vents and I treated all the wood under the house with Boracare (pesticide/fungicide). During that time, we also applied with the city to have our setbacks adjusted so that we could improve the house with an attached garage that faced the rear alley.

About 3 weeks after closing, we found that the adjusted setbacks we requested for our proposed garage addition were approved. However, the approval came with a caveat: we have to first improve/pave the shared alley behind our house. OK, great. The next week, I called some paving contractors. Only two even bothered talking to me. It appears as if most don't like to take on small residential jobs. But it only takes one. And one of the two came through. A week and a half later, the alley was improved. Things were moving ahead nicely until...

A City of Tampa Shakedown

Less than a week after paving was complete, Tampa City Code showed up. I thought that was really odd, given the neighborhood we lived in. You see, East Tampa is kind of like Tampa's forgotten neighborhood. The entire place is one giant code violation.

Across the street, a house was boarded up. The alley behind our house was filled with brush and garbage (save for what was hauled off during the paving). Two blocks down the road there was a half block filled with garbage and old furniture that had been there for months. Some houses had graffiti on them. And many houses had handy-man special additions that looked like they could blow over in a strong wind. You didn't see police in our neighborhood and you certainly didn't see Tampa City Code.

I just figured maybe they stopped by to see the newly improved alley. So, I gave the Code Officer a call. And it turns out that the asphalt contractor I hired never pulled a permit *sigh*. And what's even better is I was told that I needed a permit for my windows. What?!?! Those are the exact same windows that were in the house when we bought it! I was irate. Here we are, living in a neighborhood where less than a block away garbage is being dumped in the street, graffiti is literally on the fence behind my house in the alley and we are getting cited for the windows that we bought the house with and an alley that we improved at our own expense. But then...

Moving In

We never actually got cited. We never got anything on our door or in the mail or anything. I figured maybe the City of Tampa realized they were trying to crap on people who were actually trying to build up the neighborhood. Maybe they realized that East Tampa needed some help and we had just invested nearly $5k in a nicely paved alley, that was not only for our use, but for our neighbors' use, too. Maybe they saw that we had just purchased the home and the windows they took issue with were the same windows that were installed when we purchased the house.

So, we put it in the back of our minds and we moved in. We got some new furniture, juggled things in and out of storage, bought some rugs and realized that we needed more storage inside the home. So, we built shelves and hung up closet rods. We installed smoke detectors (none came with the house), Internet service, etc. And after a couple of weeks, it was livable.

Building a New Bathroom... Not So Fast!

Although our little bungalow was coming along, from the very start, we discussed putting in a second bathroom. So, I had an architect I talked with about plans for the garage addition create some plans for turning some existing interior space in the rear foyer into a second bathroom. And once I had the plans in-hand, I used them to file for a permit with the City of Tampa.

At first, the City sent back the application and told me the wrong electric code was cited - an honest mistake. So, I had my architect update the code and I resent. The response from the City was that I had the wrong electric code (which was corrected, but that they didn't acknowledge) and they included the permitting of the windows and the alley paving. It turned out that my assumption that the City decided to be reasonable was incorrect.

The paving thing kind of pissed me off. I hired a professional, thinking they would just take care of everything and clearly they didn't. But, on the other hand, they were one of only two companies that even called me back. So, I kind of consider us fortunate that the work got done at all.

The (100% untrue) assertion by the City that we had windows installed really pissed me off. How can you fight something when there is no evidence and no actual due process? But then it dawned on me. There was a permit search done on the property by the title company before we closed and everything was above board. The last owners had the property for less than 5 months and did a lot of work on the house. It was either permitted or everyone, including, and especially the City turned a blind eye to developers where they are more than eager to crucify resident homeowners. That would be next level corruption, in my opinion - it's possible, but probably not the most likely scenario.

The City of Tampa Running in Circles

So, in order to cover our bases, I poked around on the City's own website and I did a permit search on our property. And what did I find? There was a renovation permit issued on the house 6 months ago by the previous owners that was inspected and completed. I made a couple of calls to find out when it was completed. As it turns out, the inspection and the completion of the permit was one month before we closed. The windows were already on the house at that time; they were permitted.

So, now the permit I requested to create a bathroom out of existing interior space is being held up because of the windows installed in our house, which the City says are un-permitted, but which they show in their own records as being permitted. And it's also being held up for the shared alley improvements. We'll see what happens next week, I guess.