Expert: Russel Ray - 7/28/2010

Question
Dear Russel

I'm writing to you to ask about a patio cover that was already in place when i bought my home 2 years ago. Recently the city of Manteca, Ca has sent a notice telling me i would need to tear it down or obtain a building permit for the structure and that it would cost me more than $600. this patio cover looked fine when i looked at the home and it was even one of the selling points, I had no idea I needed a permit for it, and the seller never obtained one. I'm confused because i didn't build it and i was never disclosed or advised that it needed a permit when i bought the home. I belive it was also a probate sale because the seller had inherited the home from her late father, so she may have not known about it. Whose at fault for this does it go back to the relator, or the seller or am i now the one who needs to take care of this problem. Aren't the selling/buying agent responsible for disclosing this information?

Thank you for you time
Adam

Answer
Hey, Adam.

Sorry to hear about your problem, but, unfortunately, this happens a lot, especially with probate sales, foreclosures, and landlord sales; in other words, whenever the owner of the property never lived there or hasn't lived there in many years, they don't know anything to disclose and are generally exempt from disclosure, as is the Realtor in that situation. That's one of the reasons why Realtors fight to get listings on probate sales, foreclosures, and landlord sales since the disclosure forms are extremely easy to complete since they generally have absolutely nothing worthwhile on them.

Your experience is why it's very important that buyers have the best home inspector who would have at least been able to caution you about the permit history of the building and how to check into it.

At this point, the $600 fee is yours to pay since you own the property. $600 is actually relatively cheap to get an as-built permit. You could try suing the Realtor and the Seller in Small Claims Court, but it's been my experience here in California that for a probate sale, you're only going to be spend more money to file the claim and won't get any satisfaction from it.

Let everyone know that when they buy a house, even a brand new one that has never been lived in, they need the best home inspection, which probably won't be the cheapest, and if in California, they need to do a permit history search on the property while it still belongs to someone else so that the someone else pays those permit fees and any penalties.

Hope that helps some.

Russel