I have a ten unit apartment building that I’ve owned for about 7 years… it is a low income property but I’ve tried my best to maintain it to the best of my ability. I bought the property from an out of town landlord so I got a good deal on it.
To make a long story short, a disgruntled tenant who I let move in with no money down… only with a section 8 certificate, complained to the chief of the fire department (which is across the street along with the police station) about a bad switch in the apartment… She basically did this because she found another place to live and had to have a reason to “get out of my building” and get her voucher back. This created a whole host of problems for me over the past year… It triggered a full state inspection from the fire marshall on my building…
I was there when he did the inspection… it was a big deal… it was almost as if they were on a witch hunt. I have never witnessed such pompous attitudes in my lifetime… He came back with a report that I must bring the building up to the current code… install sprinklers, hard wired smoke detectors, etc. I knew that I was exempt from this because the building was grandfathered in… I promptly had my attorney send him a letter detailing why I should not have to do such repairs. He sent a revised list of demands, which I thought were fair.
Fast forward a few months and my property manager meets him to go over the progress. He was not satisfied with how quickly things are moving and is requiring AGAIN that we have hard wired smoke detectors, etc. This guy is just unreal… Do they have the authority to just make me do anything (though I am exempt) without due process? Do I have zero rights as a landlord? No other building in the small city is required to have these features… I am just beside myself that bureaucrats can impose such crazy rules on us when we are clearly exempt. Has anyone else run into this, any ideas on how I should handle this? I mean this guy is just on a power trip and getting out of hand, it is insane.
The building is directly across the street from city hall, polic and fire stations… It is almost as it they are getting together to give me a hard time so I end up losing it someway or they get it underhandedly… I have heard that they want to make it a parking lot… The building is over 100 years old and was made into apartments in the 70’s… I really would appreciate any advice anyone can give me, I feel like they are “out to get my building”…
I have a similar project going on right now too. I also had this happen approx 5 yrs ago. here is what I did.
I was at my wits end because I was without rent on half of my building and the city wanted to condemn it, for a lot of trumped up reasons, and after 6 months of this I decided to strike back. I got all of my current tenants to write me a letter of recommendation and I took pictures of all of the apartments and cataloged them onto a portfolio and went straight to the local newspaper. I asked them to investigate and write any story they wanted. They did and the next day after the story came out I got my CO. Yes you have legal rights if you want to pay thousands to fight for them. I chose to shine the light on the problem and the cockroaches scattered.
With my current problem my strategy was to wait them out. These are bullying tactics and for the most part they work,unless they find someone that is not intimidated,then they will try the negotiate and back off and try to intimidate again, then when word gets out that they are trying to destroy investing in the city, I will get my CO. Word is spreading fast and I have permission to fix my units the way I would have in the beginning.
Redhawk
Hi,
I read your posting all the way through, I think where the problem really stands is the time issue!
As a construction professional and experienced investor I can go through and gut a 10 unit building to the frame and completely rebuild it in less than 100 days turnkey! (Three months and a week) This would include all new roof, siding, trim, utilities, plumbing, gas, electric, HVAC, hard wire alarms, install stand pipe and fire sprinkler system, insulate, drywall tape and texture, new everything!
You were doing fine detailing and negotiating repairs against grandfathering except I would have done everything I could do to finish the repair list in a few days or a week, not two months? Your the only one who really knows whether you or your help played around and either kept putting it off or took your sweet time doing it, I think the city was thinking it should have been done in a week or two, and it probable should have.
I think waiting two months to get an inspection has left these inspectors steaming, they probable figure we didn’t red tag the property and force the tenants to move, but we expected the owner to work diligently (One or two shifts per day, seven days a week to make repairs quickly with a reasonable sized crew to complete the work in a timely manner.)
I think I would have wanted to be there for the inspection myself or have a licensed contractor represent your interests and be there for the inspection!
Needless to say the city expected 5 or 10 or 15 professional guys in there for one or two or five days to correct the list? And for the list to be completed 100% in that time, not to go over progress two months later?
Good luck,
GR