I will make this short as possible, anyone with advise please chime!
Lived here 4 years, neighborhood where everyone is on an acre. Next door, neighbor moved out he could no longer afford payments so rented it out. The renters are a real nightmare, loud music coming from cars rattling my house, traffic going in and out all day, pitbulls tied to trees, junk cars appearing overnight on the property, peeling out in the streets you name it, it goes on. I asked repeatedly for them to turn the music down, even had the cops come out there to tell them to turn it down, but daily it went on so I made the BIG MISTAKE of getting code enforcement involved. I complained about the cars, the loud music, and a porch on the back of their mobile that they attempted to make a room and stopped halfway.
Turns out they didnt have permits for the front or back porch or for their shed. They are probably going to pay bigtime for it. I didn't mean for it to get to that. The daughter of the owner comes to me, pitching a fit, and tells me her brother used to own my house and he and his friends built my porch and it never was permitted and said she has a friend in code enforcement that told her I reported them so she's reporting my porch. Since then my yard has been tee pee'd and my fence broken. The renters are related to the owners in some way I know.
After her telling me she was reporting me, I checked my survey, went on property appraiser's website, everything shows the aluminum screened porch so I thought I had nothing to worry about. WRONG. Code enforcement officer knocks on my door and I get this big red paper and 2 warning tickets. Dont even know how he saw what he did unless he got on a letter and peered over the fence into my backyard. One for the porch, it must be permitted. I called the property appraiser's office, asking her how I could be taxed on something without it ever getting permitted, wouldn't they realize that? She said they don't care about permitting, they just worry about collecting taxes on any new structures they find (they found the porch in 2003) I have to get either an engineer or architect to come draw plans for it, get two copies signed and sealed and statements saying it is up to code (it probably isn't). I just don't understand that if the county obviously knew about my porch because it is on the tax rolls, why am I having to go through this. I did all the right things, had the property surveyed, appraised, went through a realtor, had title insurance and somehow nobody caught this porch not having a permit. IF the porch doesn't meet code, I face having to tear it down. I love the screened porch its the best thing ever and I can't imagine having to rip it down. I couldn't even afford a new one as I'm in between jobs at this time. I was told to take the previous owners to court but they're divorced and likely have no $$$ as that's why they sold this place in the first place.
The shed, which I'm not as worried about, is a joke. It is a Rubbermaid shed about 6' x 6' and I am getting fined, paying double permitting fee since I never had a building permit pulled before putting it up, I bought it from Home Depot and had no idea it needed a permit, if I would have known I would have applied for one. When I called down there someone at the office said this county does not permit plastic sheds because they don't stand up to hurricanes. Another person said they do as long as its on concrete slab.
So I'm in a WORLD of trouble and anger and sadness right now over my house being under attack because I complained about the unruly neighbors next door.
Has anyone dealt with code enforcement and has anyone gone through something similar? If so, please share because right now it's not looking good. I'm worried and can't get this off my mind.
I'm going down there Monday to talk to them, I know being nice will help but how can I be nice if they're going to make me take my little shed down and the backporch as well?
Lived here 4 years, neighborhood where everyone is on an acre. Next door, neighbor moved out he could no longer afford payments so rented it out. The renters are a real nightmare, loud music coming from cars rattling my house, traffic going in and out all day, pitbulls tied to trees, junk cars appearing overnight on the property, peeling out in the streets you name it, it goes on. I asked repeatedly for them to turn the music down, even had the cops come out there to tell them to turn it down, but daily it went on so I made the BIG MISTAKE of getting code enforcement involved. I complained about the cars, the loud music, and a porch on the back of their mobile that they attempted to make a room and stopped halfway.
Turns out they didnt have permits for the front or back porch or for their shed. They are probably going to pay bigtime for it. I didn't mean for it to get to that. The daughter of the owner comes to me, pitching a fit, and tells me her brother used to own my house and he and his friends built my porch and it never was permitted and said she has a friend in code enforcement that told her I reported them so she's reporting my porch. Since then my yard has been tee pee'd and my fence broken. The renters are related to the owners in some way I know.
After her telling me she was reporting me, I checked my survey, went on property appraiser's website, everything shows the aluminum screened porch so I thought I had nothing to worry about. WRONG. Code enforcement officer knocks on my door and I get this big red paper and 2 warning tickets. Dont even know how he saw what he did unless he got on a letter and peered over the fence into my backyard. One for the porch, it must be permitted. I called the property appraiser's office, asking her how I could be taxed on something without it ever getting permitted, wouldn't they realize that? She said they don't care about permitting, they just worry about collecting taxes on any new structures they find (they found the porch in 2003) I have to get either an engineer or architect to come draw plans for it, get two copies signed and sealed and statements saying it is up to code (it probably isn't). I just don't understand that if the county obviously knew about my porch because it is on the tax rolls, why am I having to go through this. I did all the right things, had the property surveyed, appraised, went through a realtor, had title insurance and somehow nobody caught this porch not having a permit. IF the porch doesn't meet code, I face having to tear it down. I love the screened porch its the best thing ever and I can't imagine having to rip it down. I couldn't even afford a new one as I'm in between jobs at this time. I was told to take the previous owners to court but they're divorced and likely have no $$$ as that's why they sold this place in the first place.
The shed, which I'm not as worried about, is a joke. It is a Rubbermaid shed about 6' x 6' and I am getting fined, paying double permitting fee since I never had a building permit pulled before putting it up, I bought it from Home Depot and had no idea it needed a permit, if I would have known I would have applied for one. When I called down there someone at the office said this county does not permit plastic sheds because they don't stand up to hurricanes. Another person said they do as long as its on concrete slab.
So I'm in a WORLD of trouble and anger and sadness right now over my house being under attack because I complained about the unruly neighbors next door.
Has anyone dealt with code enforcement and has anyone gone through something similar? If so, please share because right now it's not looking good. I'm worried and can't get this off my mind.
I'm going down there Monday to talk to them, I know being nice will help but how can I be nice if they're going to make me take my little shed down and the backporch as well?
