M
Messenger82
Guest
- Jurisdiction
- North Carolina
Hi! First post and great site.
The title is pretty much the question but let me add back story in case anyone would care to offer other thoughts.
We live in a rural area with a septic system. We purchased the house two years ago and wish to refinish a bonus room.
When we purchased the house we had a septic inspection done. The inspector said there may or may not be a leak. He offered to replace the tank. It wasn't a deal breaker and the previous home owner conveyed some money at closing to investigate further. Several months went by and we never heard from the septic service company despite numerous calls. We wrote him off. However, he did go down to the country four months later and filed for a permit to replace the tank. We had no contract with him, no signed paper work, no verbal permission, nothing. Our feeling was looking for a "deposit" on work he never intended to do but that last point isn't relevant. The county has a stated formal policy requiring a written contract with signature to be presented by a contractor from the owner before a permit can be issued. Despite not having signed that, the county issued this permit to replace a "leaky tank" (a point we contest after having a separate company review the system). We did not know the permit even existed.
Now, two years later we are attempting to get a permit for our minor renovation but the county says we cannot do any work on the house until the septic system is replaced, due to the outstanding permit. The county cannot produce any documentation of us signing a contract. It's our contention that this permit isn't valid by their own policy. They are unwilling to budge and claim their word is final. Because of the age of the permit there is no appeal process available.
We believe the county should have never issued the permit and by their own policy is not valid but we have no way to compel them overturn this. If they are requiring is to execute a physical action to correct their oversight are they liable for the cost of the action? It's not enough money to make it worth hiring an attorney but it's $4000, we can't write that check without feeling some pain. Can we mediate this in small claims? Can you sue a county government department in small claims?
The title is pretty much the question but let me add back story in case anyone would care to offer other thoughts.
We live in a rural area with a septic system. We purchased the house two years ago and wish to refinish a bonus room.
When we purchased the house we had a septic inspection done. The inspector said there may or may not be a leak. He offered to replace the tank. It wasn't a deal breaker and the previous home owner conveyed some money at closing to investigate further. Several months went by and we never heard from the septic service company despite numerous calls. We wrote him off. However, he did go down to the country four months later and filed for a permit to replace the tank. We had no contract with him, no signed paper work, no verbal permission, nothing. Our feeling was looking for a "deposit" on work he never intended to do but that last point isn't relevant. The county has a stated formal policy requiring a written contract with signature to be presented by a contractor from the owner before a permit can be issued. Despite not having signed that, the county issued this permit to replace a "leaky tank" (a point we contest after having a separate company review the system). We did not know the permit even existed.
Now, two years later we are attempting to get a permit for our minor renovation but the county says we cannot do any work on the house until the septic system is replaced, due to the outstanding permit. The county cannot produce any documentation of us signing a contract. It's our contention that this permit isn't valid by their own policy. They are unwilling to budge and claim their word is final. Because of the age of the permit there is no appeal process available.
We believe the county should have never issued the permit and by their own policy is not valid but we have no way to compel them overturn this. If they are requiring is to execute a physical action to correct their oversight are they liable for the cost of the action? It's not enough money to make it worth hiring an attorney but it's $4000, we can't write that check without feeling some pain. Can we mediate this in small claims? Can you sue a county government department in small claims?
