I received a letter from a tree expert, an Arboriculture Pathologist.  The letter states that a tree in our municipality has included bark in several locations, the worst being at the base, which could cause splitting of the tree onto the neighboring house.  The tree is approximately 100 feet high and the weight of the concerned section is approximately 60 – 70 tons.  The tree expert is saying that the tree should be removed, at least the concerned section.

 

The tree is located on private property.  The owner of the adjacent property is the one who hired the tree expert.  He is asking me to intervene on behalf of the Town, as Code Enforcement Officer, and force the tree owner to react by having the tree taken down due to the supposed danger of the tree.

 

Have any of you had situations like this one.  Isn’t this a civil issue?  Please send me your thoughts and any cases you where you have been involved.     

Inspections and right of entry

If you have been an inspector for any amount of time, you may have come across the house or property with "no trespassing" signs all over the place. It also happens to be the place that you received a complaint about something going on in the rear yard that may be a violation. The violation is not visible from public view because there is a fence. The complaint was anonymous, so we cannot assume cooperation from the neighboring properties.

What is your course of action?

New home for CEZOA

Take note, the new web address is CEZOA.org. Update your bookmarks and check in to for updates and meeting announcements.

Software solutions for code enforcement

This inquiry from member Sonjia Solomon in Berwyn Heights writes:

 

I am searching for software or a program that will perform trend analysis for all things related to code enforcement; i.e., violations, rental properties and permits from our statistics. Unfortunately, I do not have code enforcement software due to the cost which tends to incorporate this function so I am searching for alternative methods on how to achieve this whether it be an affordable code enforcement software package I can purchase or if someone could send me a link of something they produce in a more common application; i.e. Microsoft.  Thank you.

High court takes on "Landlords vs Code Enforcement"

If you missed this, here is an article about an interesting case involving the City of St Paul Minn and their recent "crack-down" of enforcing the codes beyond those standards already applied for federal housing subsidies. The entire article is found here. This suit brings into question the tactics that cities and municipalities implore to raise the housing standards, particularly in economically distressed neighborhoods and striking the right balance between offering fair housing and a place that is safe and up to code. This case should further clarify the courts position on FHA's standards for fair housing discrimination where it has become increasingly inconsistent among the various circuit courts throughout the country.

Does that tree house have a permit?

For those of you in Zoning Enforcement, you might be interested in this story. To summarize, the owner is an active member of the armed services and he had this built on his property:

He ran afoul of the law when he constructed a tree house without a permit. Now the local zoning board has issued an order to have it removed. OUCH! I'm not in zoning enforcement, but I can't help but to feel sympathetic to both sides of this, the military dad and the zoning official. Fortunately, our city does not regulate tree houses!

GFCI's Where does your jursidiction stand on this?

A fellow inspector took this up as his "pet peeve", if you will, as a part of the property maintenance ordinance that he absolutely checks on at every inspection. The problem is, our city ordinances only requires them to be installed in bathrooms since we are operating on the 1996 IPMC. Current ICC codes requires them to be installed within 6 feet of a water source, as well as kitchen counters, wet bars, outside receptacles, garages, crawlspaces, boathouses, areas around swimming pools, spa's, hot tubs and unfinished basements. All you every wanted to know about GFCI's can be found here.

New construction will be up to date with these code changes. But in the rental licensing inspections we do, the standard is not up to par, or up to code in this case. There's a fine line between enforcing safety codes and causing an undue hardship for landlords. It seems as though the costs of adding one are minimal if you consider the safety benefit.

What does your town or city requires for existing properties? What version of the IPMC are you working with? Assuming you have a regular inspection program, are your codes up-to-date with ICC as it relates to GFCI's?