Building Codes and Enforcement.

Factual Questions
1

This is a thread dealing with a slight legal matter, but don’t worry, I’m not asking for legal advice. I am toying with the idea of hiring a local attorney to help me in this matter, or even take it to my local councilperson. I just am requesting suggestions or input.

My wife and I live in a house that was built in 1900. We live within the city limits of Cleveland, Ohio, but in one of the out-laying neighborhoods. We’ve had a mortgage on this property for seven years now. When we bought the house, it was inspected by a former fire chief, who found nothing wrong with it. We are not beholden to any type of Home Owners Association.

It’s just a private residence in the middle of a city neighborhood.

We received a letter from a local Community Development Office about three weeks ago. It stated a concern for our neighborhood, and that they were motivated to make sure all structures in my neighborhood were safe and sound.

It cited that there were two building codes that my property was in violation of: visible trash cans on the side of the house and the lack of a railing leading up to our front porch. It said to contact them for more information, before the city of Cleveland notices, and starts levying fines against us - upwards to $1,000 a day.

:dubious:

Seriously.

As I was taught that all correspondence should be in writing, and that me being a private homeowner affords certain rights to me, I wrote a letter back pointing out that our house is over 100 years old - which probably predates any of these codes - and asked for the codes in writing. I mentioned getting an attorney involved. I also suspected that these codes might apply only to rental properties, so I mentioned that this was a privately owned primary residence. I also asked from where this authority came from.

I got a response letter yesterday stating that this Community Development Office inspected 129 properties in my neighborhood, and mailed out 85 violation notices. It also urged me to call them to discuss the scope of the work going on in our neighborhood.

Included in this reply letter was a print-out of the code violations that they referenced. The referenced link is here, starting with code number 311.7.4:

http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4101%3A8-3

It doesn’t seem to be completely bogus, a scam, or some sort of guerrilla type of advertising for a contractor. My main questions are:

Is what they are referencing legit, and does it apply to us?

Is there a certain type of attorney, or discipline within the legal profession, that handles cases like this?

Would going through my local councilperson help at all?

I see the address from where this letter came from, and I can ride my bike there in about ten minutes. Should I just show up in person to discuss this?

2

As you want suggestions, how much would it cost to add a railing and to buy or build an enclosure for the trash cans? Would the cost be less than or comparable to the cost of involving an attorney?

3

Do visible garbage cans affect the load capacity of the wall? :confused:

4

you may not need the railing because the stairs have existed before the code demanded it.

if the garbage cans have sat visible and unmoved for 115 years then they could be OK too.

compare the cost of fighting the violations.

a pipe railing is cheaper than that fight and is cheaper than a hospital bill if someone were to fall.

plastic garbage can enclosures are not expensive.

5

Your garbage cans are unlikely to be over 100 years old, and not part of your structure. An enclosure sounds like a reasonable requirement and also doesn’t have to be part of the structure. The railing is a different matter but as pointed out above adding a railing will cost much less than fighting city hall.

6

As a practical matter, you might as well add the handrail and a screen around your garbage cans. It won’t cost much.

But there’s one question I have for you: what is this “Community Development Office” ?

It does not appear to be an official government agency , and does not appear to have any authority to do anything. They seem to have issued you a letter of “warning” --but not a legally binding order to make repairs.
And the warning seems to be only that the city of Cleveland might wake up and notice the problems , and might levy fines of (add scary background music …)thousands of dollars. Or might not…
Then they sent you a copy of the standard city building code (which presumably anybody can download.)

Who signed the letter, and how did he get to be the head of the “Community Development Office”?

Is he a paid employee of the city? Was he elected, or appointed by a body of elected officials in the city? Who is paying his salary while he investigated 129 properties and wrote 85 letters alleging violations?

What are his qualifications to work as an engineering inspector,( and law enforcement agent?)
Is he recognized in any official way by the municipal engineering department?-- (which *is * the qualified and legally authorized agency responsible for enforcing the codes)

It may be perfectly legitimate, and the fixes they recommend seem like good common sense in any case, …so I wouldn’t fight with them.

But it seems a little fishy to me…
The builidng code is law, just like traffic laws and vehicle inspection codes.
Building code violations are like traffic tickets. If you violate the law, you pay a fine, or whatever. And the ticket is written by a person with legal authority…

But sometimes, if you are lucky, the policeman only gives you a warning instead of a fine. Maybe this is similar.

7

I’m 99% sure it’s a contractor. We occasionally get flyered with “notices” that our street number is insufficient and we will die horrible painful deaths when the fire department can’t figure out which burning home is ours. Some semi-official sounding entity will literally save our lives by painting NEW numbers on the curb for $35 and will even stencil an American flag for $15 more, so the fire department will know we’re patriotic Americans worth saving. Another is a notice of violation that our windshield has a crack, chip, scratch, and/or sandblasting and lacks OEM structural integrity. Any stiff wind or a stay leaf will cause it to implode - causing blindness, decapitation, metallic taste, righteous indignation, criminal liability, or worse.

8

What do you want an attorney for?

It appears that a regulatory agency has decided to enforce regulations that it may not have previously put much effort into. Or perhaps the regs are new. A plain reading of the regs on stair rails does not include any exclusion for existing structures.

In either case it appears you are in violation of those regs. And it appears your intent is to claim that since you have violated them for years, you have a free pass to continue violating them going forwards. That is not a legally defensible theory.

Feel free to spend $100 asking an attorney this question. But that’s the answer you’ll get.

You’re probably going to have more success attacking this problem politically. IOW, if you and your neighbors raise a stink with your city councilman, alderman, whatever you call them, you may convince him to persuade the agency to alter their enforcement priorities to be more to your liking.

In so doing, you may learn that this is part of an effort to control derelict properties in your area. Which may entail enforcing a lot of code violations against a lot of houses to avoid charges of selective enforcement against the slum lords and abandoned property owners.

Or you may learn that the code enforcement division has ben charged with raising money to balance the city’s budget and your neighborhood has been chosen for a shakedown.

Either way you’ll be wiser, and perhaps a bit sadder. But with more information you can spend your legal budget more wisely if it comes to that.

ETA: Or as others said, find out who / what is this “Community Development Office”. If real, as I said above. If a fake / scam, sic the city attorney on them.

9

At least here in CA, it’s very common for a municipality to lump the building and planning departments under the heading of “Community Development”. That is not to say the letter in the OP is legitimately from the municipality, but that name, alone, is not suspicious.

Still, if I were the OP, I’d contact the Building Department directly. Usually you can just show up during regular hours and talk to someone. If it’s a scam, they’ll let you know.

10

Link to Cleveland’s Community Development wed site.

But it looks like the Building Department is not part of it.

11

Here is their website:

(On the rotating pictures, the one of the colorful house is actually on my street. I recognize it.)

Seems like nice people. Lots of smiling happy folks. So, my opinion of this organization is softening slightly.

LSLGuy, you raise a good point. We have had several houses in our neighborhood demolished in the past couple years due to dereliction and abandonment.

The point is not the money. The point is, I don’t like being pushed around with threatening letters, especially since my house is 115 years old, and this is just coming to light now? As far as I know, there has never been a railing there. There is no evidence of one having ever been there.

I’m going to call them tomorrow. I’m also going to send a letter to my local councilperson. I want to start acting in a local manner on issues like this. In the end, I will acquiesce. But, I want to make a soft point doing so.

12

It sounds like the department of Community Development are being busy bodies. That is there job in some cases. They are not the ones that would fine you. The city certainly can fine you. If your ‘violations’ are not currently finable offenses it’s certainly within the cities ability to write law to make it so. The office of Community Development can report the violations to the building department and they can fine you.

It seems to be to the benifits of everyone for your trash to be enclosed and your steps have a railing, those aren’t unreasonable requests.

In my area the towns Board of Health has athority over trash on one’s property. A few brave soles decided ‘it’s my property and I’ll do what I want’ allowing thier properties to become something resembling junk yards. After lengthy and expensive court battles the results always are 1. The home owner cleans up the property or 2. The city evicts the home owner from their own property. In one case I know of a town ended up eminent domaining the property so they could clean in up because the evicted home owner still refused to do so.

13

Tell them that the exterior modifications they request will be an adverse action on the historical value of your property. And tell them to pound sand.

14

It’s unclear to me that they are part of the city government. They are .org while the building department is .oh.us

Call or visit the building department and see what they say. I bet your house is grandfathered in.

15

This is what I came in to say. In my jurisdiction, the current codes would be totally irrelevant to your house unless you did remodeling or something like that.

16

…and be sure that “modifications to a stairwell” does not trigger any permit/inspection that may trigger other requirements.

17

Good point. In a building that old, it’s likely the stairs themselves do not meet code.

18

I just remembered something that happened to me some years ago that bears superficial resemblance to the OP’s situation. I received several letters from a law firm acting as debt collectors, insisting that I owed money to a certain party. I did not owe anything, and I firmly told them so.

The letters kept coming, with absolutely no indication that anybody had ever read my letters to them. (As a matter of fact, this firm even claimed that I had not responded to their previous letters, even though I had the certified letter “return receipts” showing that they had gotten my responses.)

I finally threatened to report them to the Post Office for attempted mail fraud. THAT shut them up.

19

Which, on a serious note, is something that I’m wondering. If the house is over 100 years old there may be restrictions on what you can to do the exterior because of it’s status.

20

Here (in Calgary Alberta) Building and Development are separate but related entities. I doubt it is that different in Detroit. Building codes are there to ensure that structures are built in a way that is safe and stable. Any time you change structure you are supposed to get a Building Permit so they can screen and inspect the process so that it is done properly. Safety and hand railings on steps are covered by Building Codes.

Development on the other hand is to do with how your property is used and how structure on your property affects your neighbours and the community. Major changes in appearances (such as a new roof line or windows) usually require a Development Permit before a Building Permit will even be considered. The Development approval process usually involves not only the Municipality, but the local community association and neighbours. If someone doesn’t like your proposed new roof line because it shades their garden, this is the forum to make their case. If the community is tired of people’s garbage pails not being inside an enclosure this is a way for them to enforce it.

Safety rails are not usually a development issue unless they interfere with land use rules. I have battled Development where they insisted a safety railing required by building code was, as far as they were concerned, a fence where a fence is not supposed to be. Development is much more likely to insist you take something down rather than put something up.

Usually building code issues are dealt with at time of construction and are otherwise grandfathered. Development is somewhat more likely to ask for changes when someone complains and some aspect of the property is found to be in violation of Development and land use codes for the neighbourhood. Usually there would be an appeals process.

It sounds like you have been contacted by a community organization that is trying to clean things up. They may have a fair amount of swing with the city, but are not city. Lack of railings on century old stairs sound like none of their business to me.