By: Monte Leeper
Q. I wonder if you can help me. I applied for a building permit for a pool, a fence and a shed to store pool equipment in. I thought this would be a
simple thing, but I got a notice, very official looking that said I have to
prove my house exists. The Town of Hempstead says they have no record of my
house and will not continue looking at my plans until I give them plans of my
house drawn up by an architect or engineer. What is most strange is that I
have a permit from 1987 that I added a second floor to my house. I want to
sue my title company or somebody who was responsible for not telling me I
didn't buy a house in 1985 that needed to be proven existed. Why is this
happening? What should I do? I have title insurance, if that helps.
A. The reason this is happening is that your town came up with a policy
that homes built before the building codes were in effect and did not receive
a permit are required to now provide plans of each floor showing the layout
of the house, plus pictures of each side, an "age letter" from the Nassau
County Tax Assessor's office, and old and new record cards.
The county kept records from before 1930 that were used for tax collecting only. Many homes that were built earlier than 1930 are not on record and your town wants to rectify that. In the future, as each home is documented, this problem will not exist and it will be easier to find information about the property. In essence, you are filling in the information gap.
Why you cleared title without having a house on record is a combination problem. Your attorney may have been informed and did not tell you. Your title company may not have found the issue in the process of doing their search, or they may not have understood the issues faced by anybody looking to prepare plans or get permits and did not know to look for that information. Title companies and their work should be explained by your attorney, since I received a threatening letter the last time I commented on how lax title companies can be. I was informed by one title company that it does not check for work done inside the home, only the "footprint" shape of the house and property, as to whether additions were constructed and whether those additions had permits.
Most of the population does not know about this gap in what they are paying for compared to what they actually will get, and since you were probably as nervous and trusting as most people closing on a house, you did not think to
scrutinize the title search.
As for your title insurance, read the policy. Most say that the title company has the right to just return your fee at its discretion and gives them rights that make it difficult to sue. You are better off to hire the professional to measure, produce the plans, and make the $250 application, since you will have to do that anyway and nobody else wants to take responsibility for all the money you spent. I have dealt with this problem only four times in the past two days, so if I get another threatening letter from that title company telling me this is not their job and that I'd better be in the witness protection program, I am going to turn it over to the postal authorities for an investigation. Your common problem can be rectified, but not by suing, unfortunately.
