Idea declined by building department

Q: My house has street parking only, with no room for a driveway. Most of my neighbors park on their front lawns, which is illegal and makes the neighborhood look terrible.

Recently, I saw a home with elegant front yard parking, with brick paving and iron fencing. I’d love to copy this parking arrangement, but the building department refuses to issue a permit, even though it would improve the appearance of the area. They say off-street parking is not allowed, even though everyone else is already doing it.

I've decided to go ahead with the project without a permit. Could this cause a problem when I sell the property?

A: Lack of adequate parking can be a problem for property owners, tenants, and visitors. The failure of your local building officials to recognize a practical solution is not a credit to their judgment or their obligation to serve the needs of the community.

They would do well to consider a permit request on its specific merits, rather than blindly impose the strict letter of the law, to the benefit of no one.

If you proceed with your parking project without a permit, you may or may not encounter problems with the building department.

In most cases, work of this kind, where actual building construction is not involved, goes unnoticed, and many homeowners make such improvement without even considering a permit in the first place. However, the bureaucrats do have authority, and it is within their power to make you undo the improvement if they are so inclined. What's more, they've already demonstrated an unwillingness to apply common sense to a reasonable proposal. In situations of this kind, the possibility of bureaucratic interference should not be dismissed, but the odds may be in your favor.

As for potential problems when you sell the property, your only obligation is to disclose that the parking area was built without a permit. Most buyers willing accept such conditions, but some may not.

Q: The people who were buying our home hired a home inspector. We were told that the inspector found a few problems, but no one gave us a copy of the report. The sale of the property was not completed, and we're wondering what we should disclose to future buyers. Should we tell them about the recent inspection or just let them get an inspection of their own?

A: As sellers, you must disclose all conditions of which you are aware, regardless of where the information was obtained. Since you never received a copy of the former buyer’s inspection report, your disclosures could be termed as “unspecified possible defects,” rather than confirmed ones.

To further protect yourselves from disclosure liability, you should recommend in your disclosure statement that the buyers obtain a home inspection by a qualified inspector. A stronger step in this direction would be to hire your own home inspector and to use the that report as a supplement to your own disclosure statement.

• Distributed by Action Coast Publishing. Questions to Barry Stone can be emailed to barry@housedetective.com.