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How Good Is Your Certificate of Occupancy ? Connecticut Home Inspections,

By
Home Inspector with Fairfield County Home Inspection LLC HO1-579

 

CT Homeowner: Brand New Home Turns Into Fixer-Upper

One Connecticut homeowner warns when it comes to purchasing a brand new home, like everything else, it's buyer beware.

How good is you

 

Home owner said he is up to his elbows in papers that he wishes he saw before he bought his new Waterbury home.

There was no heating permit pulled, there was no plumbing permit pulled and there was no electrical permit pulled," he said. "According to construction law, you can't begin work until you pull a permit."

The home owner said that by February of 2000 work was complete on his house, without the proper permits.

He said he had no idea because he was given a signed certificate of occupancy indicating everything was OK.

Troubles he had over the years included a sewage backup and a fire danger with his furnace.

He said his furnace that is located in his garage was not elevated and could have potentially caused a gas spill.

The home owner requested all the records Waterbury had on his new house. He said he found that the certificate of occupancy was never filed properly. He said the one he was given should have never been signed by the city, because several permits were not secured.

"The builder broke the law and the city of Waterbury broke the law, and nobody was held accountable," he said.

The city has a different story, saying the lack of paperwork may have just been a filing problem.

Joe Geary, Director of Operations for the city of Waterbury, said, "It possibly could have been an oversight, but the building inspector assures me that there was a final inspection."

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This is why Fairfield County Home Inspection recommends if people are buying a new home have that home inspected and that they get all of the permits.

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WWW.FairfieldCountyHomeInspection.com

 

 

Comments(1)

Bruce Pinel
S & B Services LLC - North Kingstown, RI
No electrical pulled? Seems odd, in RI, the utility will not hook up the house until they are called by the local inspector, after he has inspected the panel and put his tag on it. Then when the utility shows up, they look for the tag. If they had gas, the utility would hook up and then "light the pilots" for you, i.e., look at the installation to make sure it was done properly. (They don't like to have the house blowup as they are driving back to the shop.) It would appear that there was a lot of palms being greased on this one. This is another reason why I always review the file for permits before I do the HI.
Oct 08, 2007 01:02 PM