Quote:
Originally Posted by winnipiseogee
Generally speaking I've found both the towns and DES to be really good about "grandfathered" structures. With the homes I've owned on the lake I've had more than a few non-conforming situations and I'm reasonably certain that there are even rules protecting you. In reality anything built prior to about 2000 probably wouldn't be meet current building codes.
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That's sort of true. I was looking not to long ago at a place for sale, there were several major problems with it. I happened to have both somebody from the town and DES with me at the time. DES's position was if you don't have proof when things were done if they were "non conforming" basically they had to be brought up to current standards. Even though it was clear some of this stuff had been around for a while without a reference date they didn't care. The guy from the town was a little more lenient since (my guess) the more that's removed the less tax revenue they will get. However with all that said if something was done that would have never been legal to do it doesn't matter how long it's been there it has to go.
It didn't help that the abutters on both sides were complaining that some renovations done they did not like and had contacted both the town and DES to start raising hell with the owner since this guy apparently had no use for getting approvals for anything he did over the years and this battle had been raging for a while from what I could tell. End of the day to straighten the place out was going to push the cost up way over what I would have been willing to pay, plus I didn't want to deal with the headaches. Didn't help either when I actually spoke to one of the neighbors in person and the guy had steam coming out his ears when I started to ask him about possible options in fixing things. With an unreasonable person next door that was enough for me to just walk away.
I think it's a case by case basis too. Since there was a history of bad blood at least on this property they were playing everything by the book. Also keep in mind that DES sets the bar, the town can put further restrictions in place if they so desire. You've really got to do your homework on this stuff because once you own something it's your problem to fix.