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Good information Liz. This is going to be my first home purchase. It is a single family home with an in-law unit that is legal, and 2 illegal kitchens and bathrooms were knocked down due to legality issues. The house is located in the zip code 94015. I intend to redo a kitchen and bathroom on the lower level and rent it out ignoring the legality issue. But this will be a problem if it was because someone ratted on the previous owner.
The previous owner purchased the home with the illegal units already in place. If the home was tattled on, I just don't understand why it took an ownership change before it was reported. But I want to be sure.
Liz Pendens
@
2010 Mar 31, 10:19pm
The previous owner purchased the home with the illegal units already in place. If the home was tattled on, I just don’t understand why it took an ownership change before it was reported. But I want to be sure.
You will not be able to know where the complaint originated. The building file will NOT provide that information, it is confidential in all jurisdictions.
The previous owners hitting dumb luck buying a home with existing violations is immaterial to your future situation. It could have been because it was an all cash transaction, or the paperwork was extremely sloppy. If found out, illegal occupancies do not get more leniency's because the property got away with it before or ownership changed. In fact the violation may well be more rigid and expensive.
I intend to redo a kitchen and bathroom on the lower level and rent it out ignoring the legality issue. But this will be a problem if it was because someone ratted on the previous owner.
It will be a problem regardless. The focus on why it happened is misdirected.
I was thinking there may be a chance that it was torn down, but they didn't have money to rebuild it silently. This is a shortsale. They looked like they haven't had sleep for a while.
Check out SF's Department of Building website. You can track permitted work and complaints.
The new owners may have tried to evict a tenant and were ratted out.
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Hello all,
I'm seeking the help from fellow patrick.net forum members for your expertise.
There is a property that I am considering to purchase a house that has 2 floors. The lower floor has 3 rooms that are warranted it seems because it shows up on some county records. But the bathroom and the kitchen were removed very sloppily and the owners said that the city had instructed them to remove it. The property supposedly doesn't have any more red flags with the city.
Here's the tricky part. They claimed that the city found out about it because they had two units downstairs for a total of 3 families living in it. There were 2 cable bills and 3 telephone bills all under different names, and they've added an address of 204-A, 204-B to the 204 door number on the address.
The thing is I don't know if I want to believe that that is how the city found out about it. Is that even possible? I suspect that a neighbor reported them. I too intend to make an in-law unit downstairs to rent out as well (But obviously not 2 units. That's just too much.). But I wouldn't want to get ratted on.
Anyone have any experience with this? Can it be possible that partitioning out your address like that alert the city to come check on your home? Any ways I can check if there were any complaints on the property?
Thanks in advance!