Anyone else had to deal with the "permit police"? (my sob story)

[lightningcoach]

In ground pools just cost too much money, so we decided to buy an above ground pool. I found out we needed a permit for it. They won't let us put a pool on the side of our house that is flat and fenced because we are a corner lot. All of our yard space is on both sides of our house. One side is slanted towards the easement that the county uses to take care of a creek/ retention area and the other side is large, flat and fenced. Guess what side they said we could put the pool on. The sloping, horrible side and sign an encroachment form saying we would have to move any new fence/ structure if the county needs to get through. They are saying we can't build on the flat nice side because there is some county 'building line" that cuts off 20 feet of our yard on that side. My husband does not want to put it on the sloping side because of the encroachment issue and the pool company wants a 15% fee to take back the pool. The pool guy says we should just not get a permit, but I feel that's wrong. Anyone here ever fought and won a property line issue on county setbacks? I am open to suggestions and prayer. Thanks for hearing me whine. I feel much better now.

 

[monkeyboy]

permits???? permits?????

I don't need no stinkin' permits




Actually I do, for most anything.
It ensure a cash flow to my town

 

[cheeringmom]

bummer. I wouldn't do it w/o a permit...just in case. I guess the 15% is a restocking fee. No advice just sympathy!!

 

[grinningghost]

Yes - just had ANOTHER dealing with the Permit Police yesterday. We just put our pool in in June and the permit police drove us insane. We have an easement too and it caused us to downsize our pool. The pool had to be so many feet from our shed, so many feet from our fence, so many feet from the easement - it was a major headache. And don't even get me started on the electrical work we had to have done to appease the Permit Police...

Now, we're going through it all over again with our deck. This town is crazy about permits and codes. In fact, the Code Enforcement car has been driving down our street all week just looking for things he can blow people in for.

It's a free country right???

 

[Nancy]

I don't know if we were supposed to get a permit or not. We put both our deck and our pool up without one! No one said we needed one and I never called and asked the village if we needed one. The pool guys just came out and said "where do you want it?" I told them and they put it in. We did the deck ourselves and never inquired about needing a permit.

 

[phorsenuf]

I think we accidently built our pool on top of our permit.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Yup. Growing up, my parents wanted to put in an inground pool and were told no by the twon because we lived to close to a swamp.

They were also told they could not have a horse on their property because of zoning laws (the people up the street had ponies).

I have not really had to deal with this yet since I moved out since I rent but I am going to research zoning laws and permit requirements very thouroughly before buying a home.

My landlord had a hard time getting a permit to transform the attic of his large 2 family home into a third apartment. Neighbors said it would cause too much traffic. It's a long story but eventually he got his permit. I live here now. We have one car, and I have never noticed a lot of traffic on our street.

 

[grinningghost]

There was a guy in the permit office yesterday who came in to apply for a permit for a roof he put on LAST YEAR. Some neighbor called the town and blew him in. Now, how on earth do people know who has a permit for what? And furthermore, they need to get a life.

 

[phorsenuf]

Originally posted by grinningghost
There was a guy in the permit office yesterday who came in to apply for a permit for a roof he put on LAST YEAR. Some neighbor called the town and blew him in. Now, how on earth do people know who has a permit for what? And furthermore, they need to get a life.

I didn't realize you needed at permit to put on a new roof? Was he just reshingling it? Weird.......

 

[btass]

Where I used to live the guy next door put in a pool and a year later someone ratted him out to the town. He was told either pull the pool down or pay $250 ticket for building without a permit. You should check and see what the ticket would be if you put the pool where you want, if it is cheaper than the battle with the town, just put the pool up and pay the ticket.

 

[FroggyinArk]

question number one,, does the city/county maintain the easement? ie do they mow it or walk it regularly? here if htey fail to maintain it for one year it reverts. the building line should be able to be argued. you might be able to move pool closer to house and get them to allow you an adjustment because of teh other easement, ( if htey havent mainatined the right of way, you couldthreaten to charge them to allow them back on?) i would fight it, The permit guy here is a jerk, he sold me a permit for myt deck pool and fence before i had my wreck. after the wreck supposedly it expired before i got it put together. We were going to have to buy another permit to finish the work we had started. Ifd that fails ask if hte city will pay to have the area leveled so you can put a pool there? they might bring in a dozer and smooth it down for you, i wwould try to work it out, most times you can get the city to come around or make allowances.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

The easement on our property comes in about 25 feet. The first 10 feet is land between the 4 lane highway and the privacy fence provided by the subdivision, but if something ever happened they could rip out anything in the back 15 feet of our actual yard (yes, we have to schlep the mower behind the privacy fence and mow it, so we try to keep it as dead and weedy as possible since only the people driving by see it).
We have all kinds of utilities buried back there. They all have utility rights. Two months ago Adelphia cable put a little box in although we have another cable company. There is also an electric box and a phone box. The previous owner had built it up with a small hill slanting up to the fence and some plantings. I've planted a lot of small roses there. I wish it was grass because I am fighting weeds. If they ever came in and tore it up I'd just put grass in.
If we put an above ground pool in we could get a permit, but our stupid association would make us get rid of it.
I know corner lots are a lot harder to deal with, so good luck. Since most of your property is street visible you'll have fewer options.
Robin M.

 

[4greatboys]

Originally posted by grinningghost
It's a free country right???

LOL only if you dont need a permit.

Thats we most of my life we have lived out of the city limits. You can do want you want, build what you want and no one is up your butt about it.

 

[lightningcoach]

What really is ridiculous is that on the same property they tell me is the county's and I can't build on are eight huge "punk" trees. I called everywhere to see if the county or the power co. would remove them (they are in power lines) but I was told that since they are next to your property line it's your job. It doesn't matter to them that if a storm came and ripped up the trees they would destroy the power lines/ destroy our roof and our neighbor's roof.

The permit guy said I would have to prove the county planted the trees in the first place. Give me a BREAK!

Well those type of trees were planted originally in Florida to dry up swamp area because they suck up so much water. So who do you think planted them- THE COUNTY! Now they are considered nusiance trees. The Power co won't cut them down becaus ethey consider the lines that just go to two houses as not very important.

Arrghhh! Vent! Huff!

OKay I feel better!

 

[LIFERBABE]

It really is getting ridiculous!!

Most of our newer subdivisions have so many rules and regulation that I would never want to live there.

We have friends that built on 1 acre lots, but they cant put up a privacy fence! So you have all this land and it is just open! The pool cant even be fenced for privacy.

If Im spending that much money I would like to have the ability to change some things. Isnt that why we became homeOWNER's in the first place.

If you are ever in Arlington look for the big PINK house! The owner tried to paint his fence and his HOA told him he couldnt, so in retaliation, he painted his 2 story home this awful pink color. (they now have rules against the color of your home now) every time I drive past I chuckle.

I dont know what to tell you, but I feel your pain!