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Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights
SFBay Chapter
SAN MATEO COUNTY RESIDENTS
Details on Fees
Code Enforcement Issues
Not in San Mateo County? Similar things could be happening in your County !!
Be a Property Rights Watch Dog and let us know!!! |
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SFABAY CAPR
CALL TO ACTION:
The San Mateo Planning and Building Dept is asking the Board of Supervisors to approve a major overhaul of the fee structure making most projects significantly more expensive and adding a bunch of new fees. They hide it under the guise of a just 5% increase, but it is not!
Most frequently applied fees are going up 18% and 38%.
A lot new fees are created in the magnitude of hundreds of wasted dollars. If you live in the
San Mateo County
PREPARE Meeting to Finalize Fees to be scheduled in 3 weeks (as soon as we get a firm date, we will let you know)
HIGH BULLET POINTS
Fees: garbage disposal permit fee is about $158, a bathroom fan $187
If you decide to replace your front window with one of IDENTICAL SIZE, the fee is at least $352 - That is, if you are able to avoid an arbitrary but required "design review exemption fee" that adds another $451 makes the total $803 (if you live in a design review district).This total does not include the actual parts and labor, which may cost you the same or less than the permit.
San Mateo Cnty Building department code enforcement work grew by 41% - from 130 cases in 2004 to 183 cases in 2011 --with prosecutions significantly intensifying in 2011 and 2012.
Consider this: not a single employee was laid off in the San Mateo Building and Planning Department since 2005 even though new construction volume had decreased during the past 7 years. In spite of new building and remodeling permits going down, the code enforcement officers are creating work for the whole department - including planners. The average annual compensation for a planner in San Mateo County is : SM County employs four Senior Planners each with an average total compensation of $161,071* (base salary+medical+pensions+"misc") *the compensation data is 2010 .
Planning department proposes to increase building dept appeal fee from an already whopping $451 to
$1000! Redwood City's appeal fee is $271.
THE GORY DETAILS
1) If you want to replace ONLY a garbage disposal, you must pull a permit and the total permit fee is about $158?
2) If you want to replace ONLY that bathroom fan and nothing else, the county fee is $187?
3) If you decide to replace that front window with one of IDENTICAL SIZE , the fee is at least $352? That is, if you are able to avoid an arbitrary but required "design review exemption fee" that adds another $451 to that window permit, bringing the total to $803 (if you live in a design review district such as North Fair Oaks or Emerald Hills, this total does not include the actual parts and labor, which may cost you the same or less than the permit).
4) If a person you bought a house from did a non-permitted porch railing replacement 12 years ago, that can come back to haunt you (actual 2011 case) since there is no statute of limitation on building code violations. An Inspector from the Planning Department can give you a "stop work notice" now (even though no work is being done) and wants to come inside for an inspection without owing you an explantion. The Inspector does not have to allege health and safety violations to get inside your property.
5) You do not have any basic rights, the Building Code Enforcement Officer does not need a search warrant to come inside your private property. You must let him in upon his request or you get a violation notice issued.
6) You may have only replaced a porch railing, siding, and a window 12 years ago, but the Building Department will not issue you an after-the-fact permit now until you bring in a full set of building plans including minor details of the inside of your home. The County will charge you for the planning, plan checking, building, filing, etc. fees costing you thousands of dollars (actual cases fetched $2,000 to over $5,000 to the county). On top of that, you may be charged a demolition fee of $351 to legalize what you did in your home over 12 years ago.
7) If you violate the building code, the penalty is 10 times the original fee up to $3,000 plus the all the regular building and planning fees. (page 4, San Mateo Building department volume of code enforcement work grew by 41% from 130 cases in 2004 to 183 cases in 2011 with prosecutions significantly intensifying in 2011 and 2012 (San Mateo County online permit center, SWN notice search).
8) The word of a building inspector who wrote you up is enough to trigger a lien recordation process, which means that each day your violation remains outstanding is a separate violation, subjecting you to thousands and thousands of dollars in fines that will be recorded against your home. (Section 6593, ) You cannot refinance the home with such a notice of violation and when selling it you will probably end up selling at a significant discount.
9) If you feel like you and your home have been wronged and violated and you would like to get some justice, you will have to pay an appeal fee of about $520 (filing fee, all surcharges) to take your chances with the Board of Appeal.
10) The current Board of Appeals majority consists of the Building Department Officials, which places you in a unique situation of being tried with the prosecutor and the judge from the same entity. That is why most of the people who became code enforcement victims pony up the cash (the ones who can afford to) and give up their rights.
Consider this: not a single employee was laid off in the San Mateo Building and Planning Department since 2005 (Mr.Eggemeyer's report presented at the Board of Supervisors' meeting on March 13, 2011), even though new construction volume had decreased during the past 7 years. It seems the Building and Planning department must make up for the revenue decline by walking all over our basic rights.
So, you did not get that permit for that sliding door? Be careful, as now or 10 years from now, the building dept, an agency designed to ensure nothing but our safety, can come knocking on you door, which you are better open without a search warrant. They will make a full inspection of your house and write you up for everything that looks like newer than 40 years and best of luck fighitng it.
Sounds absurd? This is our current system. Let's tell our supervisors how we feel. Write emails to Supervisors. They are to decide this issue within the next three weeks! We need to be prepared for the meeting and will let you know when it is scheduled. |
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Don't let the sun set on LIBERTY in the SF BayArea |
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