Posted by Rich-CA on October 24, 2007 at 21:21:07:
If your unpermiited work happens to be on a building component that is required to get a certificate of occupancy, and they require you stop work leaving the structure without that key component, then they may very well be able to take action to prevent occupancy of a building that cannot get a CO due to its condition. This would be more difficult if the building were in an area where there was private utilities, but where they government runs everything, then you would be appealing to the very organization that yanked your meters for redress.
They might not have the right to do this but do it anyway knowing how expensive it will be for you to hire an attorney to contest their actions. Some cities are like that.
I was doing some work to a 4 unit i own we were fixing a leaky roof with no permit and then the building inspector issued a stop order to force me to get a permit. Well this wasnt good enough for the inspector he had both my electric meters yanked on the building and it forced my tenants to move out. Is this legal for the city to just up and yank out my electric meters?
The meters were paid up to date no problems there. The tenant said they would be willing to do what ever it takes to fight the city in this matter. Does my doing unpermitted work on a dwelling cause the city to be able to yank out meters on people? I guess I know I did wrong by doing work unpermitted but to cause people to move out of my unit and take out electric meters doesn’t seem legal is it? Wondering if I have any recourse.