Normally when our City leaders come up with new policies I am on board in full agreement. However, their new policy of having the County doing rental inspections is NOT one of my favorite policies they have added. A couple days ago a client whom I had sold a house to last year called me. They had a son attending our local University here in town so they purchased the home in April of 2009 and one of the items we found when doing inspections was an outdated water heater. The seller hired a local plumbing company to change it out and everyone was happy. Our City did their rental inspections and found the house good to go so a rental permit was issued. The City's new policy has the County Building Department doing the rental inpections for the City now.

This year when the County inspector decided he wants the current owners to hire someone to pull a mechanical permit for a water heater that was installed by the Seller's plumber over a year ago. He found absolutely nothing wrong with the installation but couldn't find a record of anyone pulling a permit when it was installed so he need the current owners to pull one now. Who gets the money when someone pulls a permit? I can see in new construction requiring a permit be pulled and even if the inspector found something wrong but to require a home owner to pull a permit for a water heater installed by the previous owners is in my opinion overkill. What was worse was his attitude. When I challenged him on why it was approved before but not now he said he didn't care what I thought, he was the one who made those decisions and went on to say it should be the listing agents responsibility to go to the County and make sure all permits had been pulled prior to listing a home. Unbelievable!!! So any rental home in the City limits will be subjected to this rule. The fact that the City had already inspected the home and approved it meant nothing. Some might wonder if this is just another fund raiser for the County but bottom line, it doesn't matter what we think...so I have been told.