Posted on 04/03/2017 9:21:42 AM PDT by TMD
Update to previous threads about getting an addition approved and finished in Campbell, CA
Original 8/5/2015 - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3321218/posts
Updated 11/3/2015 - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3356114/posts
Current 3/31/2017 - The continuing saga of getting a simple <500 sq ft addition (master bedroom, master bath, laundry room) in a unused side yard at the back of our house completed. We broke ground May 22, 2016. The rains and delays for the cabinets (my brother built them and shipped them from Kauai) caused a lot of delays but we’re finally at the end and just need the final inspection. The inspector showed up and said “Your regular inspector isn’t in today and I’ll give you the option of waiting for him because he’s familiar with the project and may not ‘call’ the things that I will because I haven’t done any of the previous inspections”. I told him we’re just anxious to get this finished. Then he proceeded to tell me the number plate for the house is not up to code because it’s supposed to be blah-de-blah for emergency services. I said first of all, what does this have to do with our bedroom addition and secondly, it’s lit by the garage lights and there’s a number on both the mailbox and the curb for emergency services. He said “well this is all part of the remodel. He then proceeded to identify 3 different petty-ass things including the plans show just a sink for the wet bar and you have a full wet bar (mini fridge, garbage disposal) in the den. These were all inspected and passed on the previous inspections. I made markings and clarifications on the plans and he said ‘You changed the plans so I’d make you submit a revision to the building department for approval’….he finally said,
It was obvious from the beginning he was “broadcasting” that he really didn’t want to sign someone else’s project off. I’m so lame that I just assume we’re all on the same team with the same objective of a safe, well-built addition. Of course I always forget these are the same people who insisted we provide a paint and roofing sample before we could even apply for the permit because “pictures (of the newly painted house in 2014) can be deceiving” and it’s also the people who could have made us remove and replace the door my brother built because it didn’t have the proper stickers on it stating it complied with the blah-de-blah testing/regulations. They have tons of discretion based on their moods. I know if I talk to the head of the department, he’ll tell me well, the numbers don’t meet code and you cannot mark on drawings. Our numbers weren’t an issue with our final kitchen inspection in 2014 and when we redid our bathrooms 15 years ago, I supplied plans written in pencil that I drew up on an 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper for approval – no problem. They keep changing the goal posts.
How can it be that your job allows you to basically say to the customer/person paying your salary, “I don’t know what the other guy approved so I can’t vouch for his professionalism and he may have approved all sorts of things that are wrong so, if I’m enough of a total asshole nitpicking things I decide to because I’m ‘in a mood’ then you won’t want me to do the inspection and you’ll just have to wait for the other guy to come back”? Why is it we have to put up with this? It always takes me completely by surprise when someone can either half-ass their job or be such a jerk doing it you’ll wait for someone else.
What is their motivation to bully and be contentious with the employer/customer??? I guarantee you that the first thing anyone thinks when they hear my tale of woe is “I will do anything possible not to ever get a permit” so, now we’ll all be criminals because we don’t want to change our house numbers that were ‘legal’ when they did the final inspection on our kitchen in 2014. They have all the power, we are at their mercy. They can pick and choose what they want to enforce. It’s like having the hall monitors from junior high running your life.
It really is amazing what we put up with. I have a friend who’s had a house in LA for 30 years that she was renting out. She decided to move back to LA on the weekend of the first gigantic storm in February, as she was moving her stuff into the house a DWP (Department of Water and Power) truck pulled up. She asked him what he was doing and he said he was there to turn off the water and power. She said I’m the owner and I pay the bills. He said ‘I have an order right here to turn it off, if I don’t then they’ll know I’m not doing my job’. She said “let me talk to your supervisor”. He said “he’ll tell you the same thing”. Sure enough she talked to the supervisor and explained she’s the home owner moving back in, the biggest storm of the season is coming and she can’t be without power/heat and water. The supervisor said “Well we have an order to turn it off, when we get an order to turn it back on, we will”. Sure enough they did. Again, WTF???
These guys are the mortal enemies of the tax-paying homeowners who spend big $$$$ to improve their home, neighborhood, city while supporting dozens of local businesses.
The drones win again.....
Pettifogging bureaucrats. Obstruction is their bread and butter.
Probably wanted you to slip him a C note.
We had a Placer County, CA building inspector come to our house to sign off on an inspection and he did the same thing noting all sorts of things with the existing parts of the house that he said had to be fixed. We told him that the existing house hadn’t been touched and that it was still the way it had been when it had passed inspection.
He told us the inspector was lax in his duties.
Mr. Megan pulled the inspection and guess who did the original inspection?
He signed off on our addition right away.
I lived in government housing on an Army Post.
When you moved, you had to “clear” quarters.
This meant that somebody from the housing office came and looked at the place to make sure it was clean and you weren’t trying to steal a toilet.
There were civilian Cleaning Teams who would come and clean your house. They would guarantee that your place would pass inspection.
Our Cleaning Team was a brand new team. We were their first job. It was two Korean ladies.
My wife kept the place pretty clean. These Korean ladies spent two days cleaning.
The place was clean.
The inspector failed it.
A guarantee is a guarantee and the two Korean ladies went back to work.
They worked another two days.
We failed again.
Buckingham Palace wasn’t this clean.
The two ladies spent two more days cleaning.
Didn’t pass.
I was on orders to report to my new outfit. You don’t ignore orders. You get there come hell or high water.
But I couldn’t leave this post until my place had cleared.
One of the Korean ladies was out on the front lawn crying. You could eat off the floors. She didn’t know what else to do.
I told her to take a twenty dollar bill and fold it up. She should palm the bill in her right hand. I showed her how. When the inspector comes, she should walk out to greet him with that twenty in her hand and stick out her hand to shake hands with the inspector.
She did this.
The inspector didn’t even go in the house and he passed it.
We laugh at the Chinese and the Africans about how corrupt their government employees are.
Our government employees are just as corrupt.
I despise GS government employees.
I can understand the reluctance of the inspector to ok the project that had oversight by another inspector. He may not have been aware of any of the approved revisions.
It’s like in my line of work. I’m not going to trust the work done by someone else on a given project.
How can it be that your job allows you to basically say to the customer/person paying your salary.
First of all, you need to “get you mind right”. You are not their employer, quite the contrary. You are their tenant, and they extract the rent (property tax) at the barrel of a gun. Try not paying your property tax and watch how the sheriff shows up to conduct the tax sale. He will arrive in a car with a shotgun in a holder on the dash, an AR-15 in the trunk, and a Springfield 40 cal semi-automatic on his hip. Now your mind is right.
Inspectors are not elected officials therefore you do not even have the ballot box as recourse. You have only three choices: fight city hall, comply with their every whim, or vote with your feet. (I know you know this already and you are just venting)
Campbell has Fkd up requirements.
They have stupid things like not impairing lakes, rivers seas and oceans.
Where the Hell are those things in relation to Campbell?
My brother is a contractor and has to answer their lame azz requirements in Campbell...
But, I don’t agree with the knitpicking over the numbers out front, or the other items that are outside the scope of the current project.
It’s not that obstruction is their bread and butter.
They copied another city or county requirements which don’t apply to Campbell.
It’s similar to many counties in California telling you all electrical low/high voltage must comply with San Francisco requirements and NECA.
Those counties don’t actually have a code that was thought out. They simply said San Francisco has the most stringent requirements and that is what we will demand.
Never mind that soil and land generally are very different that the city or that there are no buildings over 20 stories outside of San Francisco.
I know the feeling. As soon as a government drone signals that he does not want to do his job, I allow him to put me off, no matter how much I want something approved. I have had similar experiences many times, and I find those people disgusting.
On a tangentially-related note, I pray that we can kill Obamacare and kill the idea of single payer before our medical care becomes like the IRS, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and building inspections. These drones are one of the many reasons why I want to keep government as small as possible.
I had the exact same thing happen when I burned some brush on a back field. Fire inspector said I needed a burn permit. I provided the permit signed by him. He said, “Well. No one ever explained it to me that way before.”
“What is their motivation to bully and be contentious with the employer/customer???”
Ah, I think I found the source of your frustration - thinking that they would regard you as their employer and/or customer. To them you are a beggar who must jump through their hoops to get your little reward.
If they were their employer you could fire them, if you were their customer you could tell them to shove it and go some place else.
You can’t do either.
It’s the utter contemptuous attitude they present before even saying hello that is so unbelievably frustrating. On one of the initial inspections, I went out to greet the inspector and introduce myself. He didn’t even look at me, walked right by and said where are the plans. This is so alien to me that I’m left utterly speechless and don’t even know how to respond.
If I’m so inclined, I may go to City Council Meeting with a synopsis of my experience. I’m sure I’ll get laughed outta there and, as they count on, the fire in my belly right now will be doused as soon as they sign the final permit.
I could tell stories that would make you grateful for your experience in comparison, or at least I hope you have not dealt with worse than I have. I have never forgiven them, and I never will. The only answer is to shrink government.
For all you DIY Freepers out there, I suggest that you keep your plans simple. For instance in this case just submit the plan for the expansion of floor space only. Do the plumbing at a later date.
The more you show the costlier it will be. Permits are also used to reassess the value and your taxes go up.
This new inspector should have been aware of every prior inspection. The permit has sign off’s by the inspector for each inspection.
I had a building official who worked for me that like liked to play games like this. I eventually fired his ass!
It’s for your own good. Now pay me $500 just for commenting.
My Father was a developer back in the Sixties. All it took back then was a bottle of Jim Beam sitting on the kitchen counter.
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