Another teachable moment...

Discussion in 'Sun City General Discussions' started by BPearson, Apr 4, 2019.

  1. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Funny, i just wrote a response in another thread asking people to take a deep breath and relax a bit. And yet, at 3:57am i crawled out of bed unable to sleep and quite pissy at the world. Well, not the world, but Maricopa County for sure.

    This is where anyone reading this can sit at my knee and learn from my mistakes. Perhaps that is unfair, because i haven't really made any, but am paying for them (and i do mean monetarily paying for them) as we go down the renovation roadway.

    Sun City is not a city. We reside in an unincorporated portion of Maricopa county. That means things that would fall under city governance is their domain. Police protection, street maintenance and sadly yes, building permits and codes.

    It's funny, because those good old days in Sun City saw building improvements done in the community all too often without permit. DIY (do it yourself) was a way of life and very often done without any real sense of what they were doing.

    The argument goes that if you got a permit you were protecting yourself because you were "doing it according to code." While that sounds really good, i think the truth was closer to the county wanted to know you were adding on a 300 square foot addition so they could tax you correctly (more).

    Either way, Maricopa is well know by builders who hate working with them. I went to an event sponsored by SCHOA at Sundial two years back where one of the vendors told me if my project needed a permit from Maricopa County, he wouldn't even bid on the job. Yikes.

    Two years ago on this site i wrote of my county approved addition on the house we are in now. Mind you, the permit is payed for by the owner. Arguably to protect us from a builder stiffing us. In my building permit under "specials" (instructions on what needed to be done for approval) it specifically called for the room addition's floor to be brought up to the existing level of the floor in the house (it used to be an outside patio that was 6 inches below grade).

    My builder didn't do that, he wanted to bill me in the next go-around. The inspector for the county signed off on the permit even though he did not do what the permit called for. I contacted the county and they told me once the inspector signed off, there was nothing they could do. Really?

    It took a while, but i got over it. Of course it cost me a small fortune as we jack hammered the floor out and re-poured it. It left a sour taste in my mouth as no one from the county or the state entity that oversees building contractors would do anything.

    Fast forward to today. We are building a pool and that too is steeped in county permitting. Oh yeah, it gets ugly. We bought this house three years ago. It is a corner lot with more than 10,000 square feet. Back in the day, DEVCO sold these lots (this size and bigger) for a premium. It wasn't an accident we bought on a corner; it was the size lot we needed, access off Hutton and able to handle the size pool we wanted and still have plenty of room for the dog(s).

    We signed the contract with the pool company, again paying up front for the permitting fees with the county. The plan layout included the pool equipment on the Hutton side of the lot. Mind you, when we put the wall up around the property, we needed to be 12 feet from the sidewalk. Did i mention we paid for a permit then as well? And, did i mention my neighbor across the street has a 20 inch wall abutting the sidewalk?

    When we got the plans back, the county told us we had to be 10 feet away from the fence. That put the equipment in the pool, not really workable. We now lost 22 feet off the Hutton side of the lot. Stay with me, it gets way worse.

    Across the back of the lot is an 8 foot public utilities easement, we knew that because when we built the fence, we knew it was there. Okay, no problem, we would stay off of that and leave it rock.

    The bad news was we needed to move the pool equipment to the other side of the property. The pool is large, but it was still doable. But wait for it...the county in the plan review said there was a Public Utilities Easement on that side of the lot too and we could not be within 5 feet of the wall on that side of the house either. The contractor doing the home remodeling said he has never heard of such a thing.

    For the past week we have been trying to get a clarification. Finally yesterday, we were told yup, your property is really just one big public utilities easement. Our 10,00 square foot lot is now under 8,000 square, as i guess the county has somehow appropriated/designated away what we thought we owned.

    I don't mean to sound ungrateful to the country and the awesome job they are doing "protecting" us from whatever they think they are saving me from. I do know i keep paying the appropriate fees to be saved and keep getting really crappy outcomes. I do know the woman i ran into in my garage from the assessor's office taking pictures of the blueprints, wasn't there to help me, but insure they get more taxes from me.

    Excuse me if i get crazed when i walk my dog 3 times a day and see fences all around me with no setbacks or a fraction of what mine are. I know they will tell me, they must not have got a permit, or worse yet, their lot is different than yours. In the end, i am trying to do the right thing and every step of the way, the end result has been them sticking it to us.

    I probably understand Sun City as well as anyone, but it hasn't stopped the county from making my life a little (and some days) a lot less enjoyable.

    PS. I called the county to talk to the head guy and left a message, wonder if i will get a return call. I am a persistent bugger and if all else fails, i can send him a link to this thread. Once again, we'll see.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2019
  2. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Thanks E, i will give them a call later today. Crazy here now as they are shooting the concrete in the pool and the trench in the front driveway for the plumbing is being refilled.
     
  3. I worked out here for a while in the mid 2000s on the periphery of the construction business which I had over 27 years back in the Midwest. I found that the Maricopa County building department was run by basically idiots. It took forever to receive a permit and once work started problems always seem to service. It drove me crazy and after a few years I could not take it anymore and retired,

    I want to expand my carport so the significant other can park in a covered area. With the five foot setback along the side property line it look like I needed a waiver and contacted the county. That was bureaucratic nightmare so I gave up. I then noticed that in my neighborhood there were many expansions and spoke with the owners. They said they never did the permit dance and just had the concrete poured. The county never comes out unless a neighbor reported you.

    That brought me to my next problem of my neighbor who said if I built that it would block her view of the golf course, it does not. Being the understanding person that I am, I said if she does not agree to my carport project I will build a thirty foot extension to my lanai, enclose it and it will block her view of the course, it will be within the the setbacks and there is nothing she can do about it. The jury is still out on that. It will say she is in her eighties and in poor health so I am biding my time. Actually I am a very nice person in spite of this.
     
  4. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    It is an interesting equation gang, as it seems some folks live for the opportunity to make others miserable. SCHOA was set up on an interesting platform with most complains triggered by neighbors. For the most part, they don't "police" the CC&R's, unless they see gross negligence. I've had discussions as some think it better to "confront" rather than file a complaint. easier said than done some days.

    I think the best outcome of our CC&R review committee would be for SCHOA to create a magazine on the CC&R's complete with pictures, distribute them with a letter outlining those changes and try and get 51% approval within each of the 56 single family units in Sun City. Educating long time owners, newer home owners and potential buyers of what the rules are will make life simpler across the board.

    What you do with the county is a whole other matter. It truly is frustrating to pay them to oversee your remodel (via the permit) and then feel like they are doing little more than trying to make your life miserable. Nice to know they are good at something i guess.
     

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