A new pavilion built with no Building permit

For years our HOA Tennis community has complained that they needed a "shaded area" for players to take a break and watch matches. Last year a new Board was elected and in April they broke ground on a new pavilion located near the tennis courts. After about 3 months of work it was about 80-85% done. Then all work stopped. The county slapped about 3-4 notices on the structure. Essentially it was a Stop Work Notice followed by a Tear Down Notice.

It turns out that the "contractor" not only didn't obtain a Building permit, he was not licensed by the state or the county. No inspections were done during the construction phases and the Tear Down Notice has also been ignored as the HOA has now been taken to court (Dec 2016). It is my belief that our HOA President may have known before and during the construction that the "contractor" had no license, insurance and had never obtained a permit!

Since the court hearing, which the HOA members were not aware of, I have been stonewalled in trying to get an answer on what is being done. Specific questions and requests to the HOA Board get a reply "it's a legal issue" and they can't comment.

The job was estimated at $17K. Some records show we paid at least $15K but the structure is not finished and has no Certificate of Occupancy. I have asked the HOA Board for a copy of the contract (it appears there was none) and what legal actions we have taken. Are we suing the contractor or what? I'm at a loss as to a next step. The issue appears to have been swept under the rug as not a word has been mentioned during the Board meetings. I have not wanted to bring this out in public and have tried to encourage the Board to fix the problem so we can legally and safely use the pavilion. I think that the Board President knew that the contractor was not licensed and had not obtained a Building permit before construction started or during construction but bringing this to light doesn't solve the problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Do I need to contact an attorney?

Dennis G
Georgia

If there's a lawsuit pending, the board is correct in waiting until that's resolved before providing homeowners with an update. As long as they ARE taking legal action, that's what you'll have to live with for now because it's easy for information to get misconstrued and possibly leaked to the other side. You may not like to hear this, but that's how legal action works and so you may just have to wait.

Legal action is also a fluid thing and none of it happens overnight- sometimes people settle everything out of court, sometimes you win and then have to fight to collect your judgment and sometimes you lose and have to decide if you're going to appeal, which will take more time and money. If the contractor disappears or declares bankruptcy, that'll make things more complicated and take even more time and money. In the last post, some folks warned that this may end up being an expensive lesson for the association - I know you don't like hearing that either, but you may as well brace yourself for that possibility.

The last post also gave you some great ideas about what to do in the future and that's what you and your neighbors need to focus on (which may mean you'll need to rally together and get rid of this board for not doing its job). For future projects, everyone needs to insist that the board does its due diligence in checking out contractors before doing the work, getting several estimates, checking to see if permits are required and insisting the contractor get them before any work is done, etc., etc., etc.

Since brevity was a key factor in explaining the situation I probably omitted too much info. I am not a member of the board. I've declined serving several times as there are a number of HOA issues that need to be addressed, this being just one. I have however volunteered to take on specific projects for the HOA and have provided the HOA Board written reports, photos and analysis that the board has asked me to do in the past.

I can find no evidence that the Board or the HOA's attorney has taken any legal action against the contractor. There are no law suits filed against the contractor. Also the contractor, according to the city and county licensing office, has gone out of business and no longer occupies an office. The website also indicate that the business is no longer open.

It's my opinion that the "it's a legal issue" response reply I got from the Board President dealt with the HOA being taken to court for violating a couple of county ordinances, specifically no building permit/inspection for a structure and not having a Certificate of Occupancy. The HOA was served in November and had a hearing in court in mid December. The Board President was present and an attorney represented the HOA. A fine was paid, according to court records. I assume that we, the HOA also paid the attorney for representation.

No legal costs appear in the November or December accounts/expenses statements. As we are now in mid February I would assume that court and legal expenses would be posted in our records but nothing has appeared. This looks to be a case where the HOA President's comments regarding "it's a legal issue" actually relates to the HOA being taken to court for violations and he does not want to share that info. He may not be aware that I have seen the court documents. I have not told him I'm aware of the court hearing and fines we have paid.

There are only a few people in the HOA that are aware the pavilion was never permitted and was ordered torn down by the county. I think only a couple of people are aware of the court appearance and the costs associated with that. Meantime we have a building, unfinished, with no Certificate of Occupancy, that can't be completed according to the county, and has been ordered torn down. The only costs that have been documented is about $15 -$17K for initial construction in April-May 2016.

My suggestion to the HOA President is to go to the county and work out a deal that gets the building completed and a Certificate of Occupancy issued.

To date the pavilion has been sitting since the first week of July with no further action. I have refrained from presenting all of this in our HOA Member meetings and had hoped the Board President would get this situation corrected but after nearly 9 months I am not hopeful. My primary concerns are: get the pavilion finished and determine what the actual costs are for this project.

DennisG7

Larry,

Dennis brought this issue up earlier:

http://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/view/topic/forumid/1/postid/218064/Default.aspx