A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
City Paper: House Partially Collapses
The City Paper covers the story of a Florida Avenue house that suffered a partially collapse due to adjacent construction.
1 comment:
Bob
said...
CALL MPD and DCRA if you are ever in Mr. Harris's situation!!! This is especially important if there is work occurring when a stop work order is posted. Just call 911 and ask for MPD to respond. Working when a stop work order is posted, and even just doing more work than described in the permit, is likely a criminal violation (that was the case under the Construction Codes in effect in 2002).
As a point of reference, have a look at the recent D.C. Court of Appeals criminal case involving a builder named Economides (not the zoning case--same guy, different violation!). Economides got a permit to build fix up and build an addition on his own house in northwest. Instead of doing that, though, he went ahead and razed the whole house and was constructing a whole new house... until MPD came around. MPD found him violating his permit (and an inspector caught him violating a stop work order, or vice versa). OAG prosecuted, and now "Economides" is not only a builder's name, it is good precedent against bad contractors! Thanks, Economides!
The Court of Appeals decided that even though Economides eventually amended his building permit to describe all the work he was actually doing, all the work he did before amending his permit (and, I think, work in violation of a stop work order) violated the D.C. construction codes. It is worth noting that the violation was criminal, (involving fines or jail time).
Now, Harris lives in northeast, and OAG is responsible for prosecuting these cases, so there are two things violators had on their side in his situation. That's why he should have called MPD. MPD might have actually showed up and done some ticketing or something.
If there's major work going on and you don't see a permit posted (it must be posted), call DCRA and MPD. Better safe than sorry.
For quite some time, there have a disproportionate number of dicey contractors lurking in DC who are eager to work on your neighbor's house. Protect yourself!
1 comment:
CALL MPD and DCRA if you are ever in Mr. Harris's situation!!! This is especially important if there is work occurring when a stop work order is posted. Just call 911 and ask for MPD to respond. Working when a stop work order is posted, and even just doing more work than described in the permit, is likely a criminal violation (that was the case under the Construction Codes in effect in 2002).
As a point of reference, have a look at the recent D.C. Court of Appeals criminal case involving a builder named Economides (not the zoning case--same guy, different violation!). Economides got a permit to build fix up and build an addition on his own house in northwest. Instead of doing that, though, he went ahead and razed the whole house and was constructing a whole new house... until MPD came around. MPD found him violating his permit (and an inspector caught him violating a stop work order, or vice versa). OAG prosecuted, and now "Economides" is not only a builder's name, it is good precedent against bad contractors! Thanks, Economides!
The Court of Appeals decided that even though Economides eventually amended his building permit to describe all the work he was actually doing, all the work he did before amending his permit (and, I think, work in violation of a stop work order) violated the D.C. construction codes. It is worth noting that the violation was criminal, (involving fines or jail time).
Now, Harris lives in northeast, and OAG is responsible for prosecuting these cases, so there are two things violators had on their side in his situation. That's why he should have called MPD. MPD might have actually showed up and done some ticketing or something.
If there's major work going on and you don't see a permit posted (it must be posted), call DCRA and MPD. Better safe than sorry.
For quite some time, there have a disproportionate number of dicey contractors lurking in DC who are eager to work on your neighbor's house. Protect yourself!
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