Id have to lawyer up unfortunately.

 

Owner/Builder and Contractor [California]

Purchased and did major rennovations to a turn of the century home. Added a 2/1 unit (attached) underneath existing home. New foundation, plumbing, electrical, mechanical. City was between building inspectors and hired a third party inspection outfit who conducted the final inspection and the city issued a certificate of habilitability, which was in 2019.

Fast forward to 2023.

I needed to replace the A/C units (window units) upstairs and pulled a permit to replace them with a 2-zone mini split. The permit included a demo permit to pull out 100 square feet of sheetrock in the front bedroom to insulate that wall (original part of the house is now the upstairs and it still has missing insulation in some walls).

The city still has no building inspector and uses the third party inspection outfit. I scheduled an inspection after removing the 100 sq feet of sheetrock.

The inspector no-showed. I re-scheduled but could not be onsite that day and left the unit accessible for the inspector. He showed up but said he couldn't get in. We rescheduled a third time. He no showed.

I went down to the city building department and they wanted a $66 re-inspection fee. I told the manager the inspector no showed so "no I'm not paying a re-inspection fee."

Inspector writes a ****ty email to the city manager and the community development director calling me a liar.

4th inspection date: The inspector shows up with a police escort (I cant make this **** up), and proceeds to tell me "you shouldn't have called me a liar."

This is the part I need help with:

He proceeds to make two pages of violations unrelated to the sheetrock demo to force a re-inspection of the ENTIRE property from the 2019 permit and the final. The caveat: HE IS THE SAME INSPECTOR WHO SIGNED OF ON THE FINAL IN 2019.

What should I do at this point?

Get his phone Geo records through a supena.....sue for 7x damages and a color of Law criminal charge, go after his pensions

 

I like that.

 

Sue him and the city...

 

Get a lawyer.

 

That level of corruption warrants Ivan the terrible to pluck his teeth out with a dagger...start with #16 and make sure there's extra room to work...

 

Make sure the attorney you hire is somebody who has beat the city before. I can’t stress this enough.

Call the local agitators (naacp, aclu) and ask who they recommend. Try to find a guy that has successfully sued the city or the police department for a huge sum of money. If you can hire an attorney that has given them a big enough black eye in the past they are much more likely to settle with you, and save you a fortune in litigation cost.

If it were me, I would call the city attorney first and try to have a conversation with him off the record. He’s not likely to entertain that if you haven’t passed the bar exam though.

 

Yea I was afraid you guys would say that, and I just want to thank you all for affirming what I knew I needed to do. Ugh... I found an attorney this afternoon. He has experience with this stuff and is willing to meet and confer with the city and their consultant. This is out of my area of expertise. Thanks again.

 

Are the two pages of violations real violations?

 

There are no violations listed relating to the permit, no.

I have tennants living in both upstairs and downstairs units

This is the list verbatum as written.

1) Provide proof of all exterior wall insulation
2) Provide Cal Energy Report
3) Provide plans with fire separation between 1st and 2nd floors
4) Stairs aren't up to code may require engineering or stamp with approval
5) Additional requirements may be necessary after review of 1st floor plans and permit (2017)

 

Use and abuse of authority under color of authority!

find the grandfather clause in your state.

In order for him to conduct business as an inspector, he had to post a bond ask for that paperwork to know who the bondholder is!

 

Kick him in the nuts?


Or lawyer up.

 

some of you guys are dreaming with other people money

Not sure about CA. but in NJ you can only sue a n inspector to overturn his ruling and even then you have to go through the normal appeal process. You can not sue for damages.

During this appeal time they can require the building to be unoccupied until it's finalized. During this whole time it will be costing you money, not the city.

You are best off either finding an experienced lawyer or trying to work it out with the city attorney and/or the board of appeals.

 

I hate to be this pu$$y but sometimes it's best to just tell people what they want to hear. Best to avoid conflict in the first place when there isn't much to lose or gain.

That said I feel for you and don't blame you at all for what you did. I agree without any local municipal knowledge a good lawyer and keeping your mouth shut is likely your best route.

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I learned many years ago to be on site on any inspection, or 1 of my lead men. Otoh, there’s 2 sides to every fence


Mike

 

You guys are a bit quick to jump.

I recommend you go see the head of the building department, whatever his title is. Tell him the whole story. Particularly if the inspector is an outside sub (not an employee), a good building chief will likely side with you and may even reprimand or fire the inspector.
Making a big public display and bruhaha should only be considered if the building chief is himself incompetent or corrupt. Otherwise no need to make more enemies than you have to.
And if you own the building(s), do remind the chief, if necessary, that you are a taxpayer. A veiled suggestion that you're his employer.

 

You guys are a bit quick to jump.

I recommend you go see the head of the building department, whatever his title is. Tell him the whole story. Particularly if the inspector is an outside sub (not an employee), a good building chief will likely side with you and may even reprimand or fire the inspector.
Making a big public display and bruhaha should only be considered if the building chief is himself incompetent or corrupt. Otherwise no need to make more enemies than you have to.
And if you own the building(s), do remind the chief, if necessary, that you are a taxpayer. A veiled suggestion that you're his employer.

My apologies for not including this as part of the sought after remedy. I went to the director and the city manager both with my problem and both referred me over to this third party inspector's boss, the owner of the inspection company. I haven't heard from this inspector "boss" yet, but when I do I will talk to him with my attorney present, or not at all. I was willing to sit down with the city and explain this crazy situation but they aren't willing. I know for a fact the city is in violation of Section 1.8.8.1 of the Calfiornia Building Code by referring me to this "boss" guy and not providing an appeal process. That's why I just went ahead and got the attorney. I can't fight stupid on my own.

 

Well, ok then, just make sure you keep your info complete and accurate when you tell the attorney, not like you told it here.

What should I do at this point?

That's why I just went ahead and got the attorney.

So what are you asking us? Apparently you lawyered up already. What should you do at this point about what?
Or did you hire the lawyer in the 3 hours since you first posted here?

 

Well, ok then, just make sure you keep your info complete and accurate when you tell the attorney, not like you told it here.




So what are you asking us? Apparently you lawyered up already. What should you do at this point about what?
Or did you hire the lawyer in the 3 hours since you first posted here?

Yes it took me three hours to locate, consult and retain an attorney. Power of the internet.

I do appreciate everyone's feedback. And I did agree with you - it's just hard to data dump the whole scenario in one post unless I take up three pages.

 

We get novels on here all the time


Mike

 

Be glad it’s not a government contract


Mike

 

Wouldn't they have soveriegn immunity? I'm not sure. I've heard of federal contractors having soveriegn immunity but not sure about independent building inspectors.

 

Chances were high of him straightening it out before you got a lawyer after I would say very low because now you made it a headache and he now has to go exactly by the book and nothing will slide

 

Exactly by the book would be great.

OP asked for inspection of new work, not old.


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Bingo



Mike

 

Call the local news.

I'm a tolerant guy, but when inspectors/code enforcement doesn't do their job I'm not afraid to give them a big **** you.

I did a job in a small city, told the code guy two weeks in advance when I would be there to open it up....no show, didn't answer his phone.

The neighbor where I was working was the mayor. I had him come over take a look, told him I would take some pictures, and he called code enforcement for me and told them what was up.

Never had a problem with that guy afterwards.

If your job is to do inspections, get your ass out of bed and get on the road doing them. Drives me batty.

 

In a town I work in several years ago abuilder built I huge house (9k sf or so) with several chimneys with chimney pots on them. Got inspections all along the way and the day of finals he failed because the chimneys were too high. The inspector made an error in defining the measurement spot. The guy sued the town, the building dept, the inspector and everyone in the office. They acknowledged the error and he still had to lower the chimneys. Cost him close to $100k to fight it and was told the town was held harmless. He thought the town was going to pay damages or at least reimburse him for the extra work.

 

You might consider posing you question/situation at the building code forum. It’s 95% active and retired city inspectors, not the pre-sale home inspectors.

The Building Code Forum

The Building Code Forum is a comprehensive online platform dedicated to discussions on building codes and related topics. It features various forums covering aspects like commercial and residential building codes, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing codes, code compliance, planning and zoning...

www.thebuildingcodeforum.com

 

I would start with some basic logic and de-escalation. This all started because you didn't want to pay $66. I understand that you believe yourself to be in the right, but you need to think long and hard about if this is the hill you choose to die on.
I would arrange a meeting with the head building inspector, lay out all the information without any emotion, and request that the retaliatory actions of the inspector be investigated, and further request a citing of build code that allows a revised inspection 4 years after the fact.

 

I guess you have entered the FO stage of FAFO.
Lesson learned, don't piss on people's legs unless you truly are the big dog.