LA residential building city inspectors?

HardDrive · 04-09-2018, 08:43 AM

My sister lives in the Highland Park section of LA. She is looking at having the foundation bolted for seismic remediation. She's concerned because it will involved having LA inspectors come take a look at the work. The house is 90 years old, and was flipped during the housing crazy of the 2000s. There could be questionable work that was done. She believes that a sun porch that was put on 60 years ago was never permitted.

So how aggressive are the city building inspectors? They're not made of money, and it would be a big hit of some ahole inspector came in and started tagging all kind of stuff beyond the scope of the seismic work. Can they do that?

Any information appreciated.

Cdnone1 · 04-09-2018, 09:00 AM

Do not let them in the door. If possible do not let them on the property.
I installed my own replacement water heater and even though I bought it at Home Depot I had to have it inspected by the city. Home Depot would not sell it to me without the inspection paper work.
My water heater is in the garage. The guy from the store said they are famous for asking to use the bathroom and then once you have given them permission to enter the house they can cite you for anything they see.
Sure enough the inspector arrives and says "man I have been in the car all morning, can I please use your rest room". Nope, no way. Sorry you can drive to the store around the corner and I will wait but not giving you permission to go in the house.
So he finds several things about the slope of garage floor and venting and overflow, etc etc that were legal a few years ago that I now need to repair/update before he will sign off.
Come back to reinspect and uses the same line about using the bathroom.
If possible do let them on your property

LakeCleElum · 09:26 AM

Very aggressive. I have a friend that retired as a building inspector in city of LA. Still lives in Studio City on Laurel Canyon Blvd.......I can put you in touch if you need?

Home Depot won't see w/o paperwork? I'd just go elsewhere to buy, out of the city if need be.

Dantilla · 04-09-2018, 09:26 AM

Glad I live in a rural area. I'm going to build a 24 x 40 garage this summer.
Under 1000 sq ft? No permit needed.

vash · vash's Garage

i think i would go to the office and ask.

at this point it could go either way. doing those anchors, i know the city will want calcs and testing. $$

look 171 · 04-09-2018, 10:07 AM

I haven't been here for about a week, been a busy boy. Before you or her do anything with city inspectors, have her give me a call. I am more then happy to go and have a look and give her my suggestion. Bolting may not help all that much and do more harm in the event of the "Big one". Pm you my number in 20 min. Got to go and deal with inspector. He just drove up.

ossiblue · 10:19 AM

Is this being done under the EBB (Earthquake Brace & Bolt) program?

You might check with the building department to be certain, but if the work is only for the bolting of the foundation to the sill plate/cripple wall, my guess would be that is the only area under inspection and there would be no need to enter the house. Still, there are many code violation possibilities for things visible under the house--exposed plumbing/gas lines, sewer lines, electrical wiring, and clearance in crawl space, to name a few.

Something to be cautious about.

look 171 · 04-09-2018, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Very aggressive. I have a friend that retired as a building inspector in city of LA. Still lives in Studio City on Laurel Canyon Blvd.......I can put you in touch if you need?

Home Depot won't see w/o paperwork? I'd just go elsewhere to buy, out of the city if need be.

Is not Ron Skarin is it?

look 171 · 04-09-2018, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ossiblue

Is this being done under the EBB (Earthquake Brace & Bolt) program?

You might check with the building department to be certain, but if the work is only for the bolting of the foundation to the sill plate/cripple wall, my guess would be that is the only area under inspection and there would be no need to enter the house. Still, there are many code violation possibilities for things visible under the house--exposed plumbing/gas lines, sewer lines, electrical wiring, and clearance in crawl space, to name a few.

Something to be cautious about.

More guys are good folks and will turn a blind eye unless its dangerous, then you get the bad cop that will get out of their way to write you for everything.

drkshdw · 04-09-2018, 10:29 AM

Does LA not have a grandfather clause?

look 171 · 04-09-2018, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drkshdw

Does LA not have a grandfather clause?

Oh no, not if its an illegal structure or addition. They have records going back to the 1910. Not good records, but they do have them. I have pulled off some wide stuff with the city due to the loose records and drawings with additions.

She needs go down to the city, Figueroa three blocks south of Sunset, (10 min drive from her house) and pull records of all permits and make sure the addition is iegal.

Depending on the situation with this building, they may require her to get some engineering done before bolting. Usually that's not the case.

vash · vash's Garage

my brother's extra patio got busted when the lady at the city..(different city) google earthed his address when he showed up at the door. it sucked.

look 171 · 04-09-2018, 01:11 PM

Harddrive, I know the inspector in her area. He's a good guy unless he's had a hard day then he can be a real btich. Then there's another guy who takes his place when he's out (this happens often) That guy's name is Todd. You don't want that azzhole. A friend and I replaced a broken window on his small apt with the typical Vinyl retrofit. He drove by and saw us on a Saturday working. The next day, there's a tag on the window demanding that we get a permit for the replacement. This is not even his area but that's what he does, so be very careful with that guy. A simple $100 job turned into a 650 dollar monster for his lil apt.

dyount · dyount's Garage

As an inspector with 10 sq miles of commercial construction to do I have no idea of how these folks have time or energy to do what they do. I might "advise" things being different but won't hit someone hard unless it's a real life safety issue

vash · vash's Garage

i remodeled the bathroom at my old house. i started ordering things; had a friend hired. right when we were getting our shipments, my next door neighbor started the craziest room addition i have ever seen. it looked like they pushed a wooden box right up to his house. it was an abomination of construction. i looked and they were using 2x4's for the roof joist. that didnt seem right, so i marched right over to the city and got a permit. TWO big projects happening at once would surely garner some attention. plus the neighbors HATED this guy and would be sure to call.

sure enough..some dude came over to him and halted work. he then walked over to me..i politely showed him what we were doing, showed him our permit..and offered him coffee. (he declined). he made a list of inpection milestones he wanted to see from us..and left. cheeseball.

this guy was a DICK tho..he piecemealed the neighbors work..meaning he let him tear things down one at a time. he could have gave him a list of discrepenicies, but no..one at a time..they had to go backwards about four times. it was ugly.

and the neighbor's contractor pointed us out to the inspector because he was so butt hurt he got busted. he work was so subpar.

LakeCleElum · 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by look 171

Is not Ron Skarin is it?

No Rudi Foreman is his name....Been retired about 5 years. Now, he buys house to fix up and flip. When dealing with inspectors, he won't tell them where he used to work, he feels they will be extra hard on one of their own......Nice guy...

A930Rocket · 04-12-2018, 05:01 PM

Could you not have a 3rd party engineer look at it?

We can do that here.

HardDrive · 04-12-2018, 05:44 PM

My sister asked for my advice, then went ahead before she even heard back from me. C'est la vie.

Thank you all, and especially look 171, for taking the time to respond.

I told her to go to the city and look at the permit history. She didn't.

look 171 · 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

My sister asked for my advice, then went ahead before she even heard back from me. C'est la vie.

Thank you all, and especially look 171, for taking the time to respond.

I told her to go to the city and look at the permit history. She didn't.

There might be a city web site that she can fish old permits from. At least that may help her determine if and when that addition was built. If it was permitted and built after a certain year, then more then likely that it may have been bolted due to more modern building code. Those are the home work she can do. Going down to the city, she will actually see the plans on microfiche. This way she can argue with the inspector about the addition that may have been part of the original structure. Again, inspectors can tell if they are part of the structure just simply by the way the additional is connected or built quality. There are lots of what ifs here without seeing the actual building. She must tread lightly on this because if the inspector calls her on this, then she not only has to remove that section, they may (will) make her rebuild it and to today's code which is a royal pain in the ass and much money. If its on a hill side then its big bucks. Hillside ordnance is a PITA. You know if she;s in a HPOZ zone (Historic zone)? Well, the lovely inspector, plan checker and local fooking historic Nazi will have a field day if she has any modern windows and doors that's been retrofitted even before the established HPOZ zoning. All this work maybe too much for her to deal with.

If she's interested or insist in doing the work, then ask her contractor these questions and make sure the are experience in dealing with all the BS and not just bolt the foundation and go away and leave her to deal with the city. She's not going to be able to do it on her own. Its too overwhelming for someone who hasn't done it before. Get it plan out and come up with a game plan. A small thing can turn into huge money and the city will not let her off until she fixes it to their satisfaction. Not only she's lost the living area (if illegally built) and pay to go back to the original smaller place. That's means architect's fee, and on and on.

Please be careful with these sleaze ball contractors out there. There are many who pray on these young home owners that live in Hipesterville. She can always call me if she has any questions or need me to look at something. I am happy to do that for you/her. I can't do the work for her, but I will tell her what's right or wrong

john70t · 04-12-2018, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by look 171

There might be a city web site that she can fish old permits from. At least that may help her determine if and when that addition was built. If it was permitted and built after a certain year.....blah blah [the best free expert advice from the best top professionals served delicately at my discretion upon silver platter and delivered to me on bended knee at the foot of the throne] blah blah blah

I think Hard Drive is describing panic and shutdown mode.

She doesn't want to go through an exhausting strange new world of government regulations and processing information a different way to manipulate facts to be permitted to simply fix one's own property.
She is not willing to research carefully new things first.
She just wants to be done with it.
To have her home safe.