I am looking for expert opinions about a redevelopment of a legally non- conforming property. A neighbor purchased the adjoining property with mine. We each owned .25 of a city block. My property ran along the city street and his ran along the city alley. Both lots are 70’w X 300’l running street to street. So I purchased mine in 1995 and most of you would have tore down the existing structures they were the footprint that went perfectly with my needs. I renovated the home, garage and workshop. I total redo, upgraded the electric service, new furnace, insulation, the whole nine yards. I am an upholsterer and the workshop attached to the garage was perfect for my work. I live life to the fullest until 2003. I truly enjoyed my life right there on my property. I am a homebody type and the large yard was nothing but a pleasure to mow for my exercise routine. I had a push mower all this time. Ok let me get to the point. In 2003 my neighbor was issued this building permit for a new garage by the city building administrator. This pole building is the size of a barn. He set it on the rear half of the property. It is a two story non conforming structure. It is so large that he could not fit the building in the width of the property. He rotated the massive structure a quarter turn and by doing this the roof surface and the grading of the fill dirt diverted all stormwater onto my property. I was concerned about the loss of value to my property and the flooding. I spoke casually to the Police chief about my concerns. He advised me that this neighbor intended on building a living quarters in the upper level of the structure. I assumed he would run gutter and downspouts and divert the stormwater from the roof surface to the city drainage ditch. He also raised the alley to be the highest point on his property, diverting all stormwater from the ground onto my property. He did not install drain tile around the concrete slab. It was not in the position that is was going to harm my structures so I never said any more about it. Hopefully you can enlarge it, I am new to this forum. Is it any of your opinions that a structure of this size can be started on 3-31-2003, poured slab, and completely finished by 4-3-2003? I think it would take that long for the concrete to cure. But I am asking experts I do not want to assume anything. There is no information entered about the side yard, rear yard and setbacks either. I have the permit folded for scanning purposes but there if no entry for the fill dirt that he had trucked in. (attachment 1)
There was no construction on the inside in regards to the living quarters in the upper level. The next spring a suspicious fire destroyed the existing double wide mobile home. The city building administrator issued this neighbor a building permit for a new home. This permit is lacking serious information. (attachment 2)I think anyone redeveloping a non-conforming property should know that the law in Iowa does not allow for any new structures to have a larger footprint than the existing structures. I am certain that the Mayor and building official was aware of these laws. This neighbor again constructed a non conforming structure on this narrow lot. He trucked in massive amounts of fill dirt and build an oversized new home. Again the building was too wide to fit on the lot. He changed the frontage of this home to now be the city alley. Again the fill dirt is graded from the alley down toward my property and the massive roof surface diverts all stormwater onto my property. This time I could not afford to overlook the adverse effects this non conforming structure was causing my property. My tax assessment showed a loss of value of $10,000. In 1972 a fire destroyed the previous owners home. The same family owned both lots at that time. They put the double wide mobile home on the lot. They used a berm and swale to protect my home from stormwater runoff as they set the mobile home further back on the property. When a thunderstorm would come, the berm would create a small pond in the neighbors front yard. The berm was on the neighbors side of the common boundary and the swale was on my side of the common boundary. This new neighbor removed that existing berm when he built his new home. That act did cause serious damage to the structure of my home. (Attachment 3). The dark soil is evidence that the groundwater was saturating the dirt in my crawlspace. The foundation has fallen out from under the home. (attachment 4) The neighbor claimed that the stormwater was coming from the city streets. This photo is a shot directly to the corner of my home. The dark saturated soil is on the side of the house that the neighbor is on. The light colored, dry soil faces the city street.
It made no difference what hard copy evidence I had. The building official refused to come to the location and address my concerns. I don’t believe he has the right to opt out of a neighbor’s complaint about a nuisance drainage issue from a new redevelopment. I am sure this neighbor’s brother who happened to have the job of Lee County Detective had no authority or jurisdiction to come into town and misrepresent himself as an authority of anything, he has an ethical duty to not become involved with his brothers business, conflict of interest. But he did, and again my evidence or my rights were never even considered. Things go south real quick for me after this. I will explain more in another post if your interested. Oh I do have to put up one more thing about these building permits. The next year this neighbor gets elected to city council. My duty as a complainant is to bring my issues to the attention of the Mayor and council members. In the first five years of these issues beginning there were four Mayors in an period of 5 years, the turnover of councilmembers was similar. I go to the meeting to inform the new Mayor about the nuisance drainage issue and a few other relevant things. Sitting as members of the council are this neighbor and the building official. I stated to the Mayor that this neighbor had not even been charged a fee, asking why was this guy getting special treatment. Both the neighbor and the building official disputed my allegations right away. So the next day I waited till I knew the city clerk was at lunch and got copies of the building permits from the part time clerk. Sure enough they had committed fraud so obvious to me when they both disputed no fee had been charged at the meeting. Wouldn’t you think they would have went ahead an signed the builders signature instead of just include a fee amount with a ballpoint pen. I mean the fraudulent fee amount only proves they conspired to commit fraud, it is irrelevant to the validity of the building permit. So I guess I am asking what would you do if you were me? Being harrassed brutally since I made the complaint about the drainage. This is not the have of my story, I want to know who oversees and makes certain that building code and drainage laws are not violated. I need the name of a person and contact information if you have that available. This is in my opinion a violation of Federal law. This is clearly intentional as no authority ever came to the location to look at the situation. Whatever this neighbor said was taken as fact. He could not be more of a pathological liar and a danger to my life. https://poisonedbymyneighborfromhell.com
Replies
"So I guess I am asking what would you do if you were me?"
a. quit whining
b. don't wait 16 years
c. run for office yerself
d. buy more Kleenex
e. hire some shyster lawyer
f. learn how to condense a story into a few sentences vs a novel.
ps: only bothered to scan the entire diatribe as wondering if you get paid by the word in yer day job?
pps: read the entire diatribe in the link = sure glad Ms. M.B is NOT 'my' neighbor.
Unfortunately this case is so complex and unprecedented that I with no writing skills do not know how to make this brief. So you did not address my questions about the building permits themselves. And it is a fact that glyphosate can have serious effects to certain individuals. The feeling is mutual about being neighbors, you clearly have no regard to the law or respect for the right of your neighbor to enjoy their own property. I get no pay, I do continue to get medical treatment to keep the skin eruptions under control. I did not wait 16 years, I took action within 2 months. Apparently my attorney got a better offer from the opposing party. After fleeing I was blind and homeless. I could not act on my own behalf until I got my vision restored 5 years later. Are you a fine home builder or so heavily invested in real estate and personal financial gain that there is no line you won't cross in your own interest, narcissist?
Just speaking to the water issue: Here in VA, the rainwater diversion question goes all the way back to Riparian Rights of the 1700's. You can "redivert" it back on to your neighbors' property if that's your wish, but that's about it.
I would call the local environmental guys or your state department of environmental quality or similar for definitive answers to specific questions concerning both E & S and SW.
Also, you can't wait this long and expect changes to be made.
I have been seeking remedy since the beginning. There was a civil court order way back in the beginning that cited my right to use my property as I wished. It provided no relief from the ongoing application of chemicals to my property. The EPA did an investigation after this neighbor applied the chemicals to the city easement of my property, it happened to be a point source of a creek the feeds into the Mississippi River. I was not the person who reported the chemicals. I was a neighbor several property downstream from me. The spring thunderstorms washed the chemicals across two neighboring properties killing every living thing. The lab results came back as glyphosate. In Iowa the law states that anything (in this case a berm) that has been in place for ten years and is considered existing. This neighbor unlawfully removed the berm. This information was provided by the County extension agent who I contacted when the building official refused to address my concerns. He also sent a letter on my behalf to the mayor including a pamphlet with the State drainage laws. The Mayor did not respond.
As long as your neighbor is not storing water they can legally run it onto your property. You are responsible for any water on your property.
In Iowa a property redevelopment cannot divert more stormwater onto neighboring property than before the redevelopment.
You aren’t getting much love here. I wonder if YOUR PROPERTY is zoned for light industrial to cover your upholstery business. Maybe your neighbor should be complaining about you.
Never asked for love. Asked a question about building permits.
That funny, he did everything he could to make me the bad guy. He had the city and the State bring criminal charges against me several times. The problem was that to get a criminal conviction the charges must be based on a legitimate law. The charges brought against me were based on fabricated laws, such as "neighbor said I drove by his house and flipped him the middle finger". There is no law in Iowa that prohibits giving anyone the middle finger. I was charged with this fabricated law two times. The second was by the State, the citation said the exact same thing but added "he is tired of this happening all the time". Trying to trump up the charge to harassment. But again there is no law prohibiting anyone from flipping another person the finger in Iowa. The city criminally charged me with a fabricated ordinance. The ordinance was specifically fabricated for me personally. The fabricated ordinance was to abate landscape fabric I had on my property. There is no ordinance prohibiting landscape fabric. Needless to say the charges were dismissed, in fact I never even got to enter the courtroom. It was announced in the hallway that the charges were dismissed. The neighbor was a no show.
Oh, he tried to act on the vendetta he had from me complaining about the nuisance drainage issue. He brought this question to the city council. It was decided that since there were many home based businesses in the residential areas of the town of 900 people they would not discriminate against my business. My business was approved when I opened it. My business had been in operation of over 10 years, not a lot of traffic. Do you have an opinion on the fraudulent building permits. The only time I was not actively pursuing remedy in this case is when I went blind as a result of the treatment administered for the severe skin condition caused by the chemicals. What kind of person would use chemicals in a way that intentionally harms another person?
I am inquiring about the fraudulent building permits and your expert opinions as to whether a structure could be started and completed in a timeline of 3 days, including the pouring of the concrete slab?
'3 days'
HFH blitz builds
quite a few in less than one day using type 5 concrete
even more rapidly, an early blitz example from Carolinas
"The results were astounding: Twelve homes were completed in five days at a total cost to Habitat (not including land) of $84,000." (lots of donations not counted in$$)
Technicaly, all by myself as and old man (mid-70's) takes about 1.4 hours per square foot to build solo, half that time 40 years ago.
Typical 2000 sq ft house thus takes about a year from 'scratch' for old birds.
Thank you junkhound for the response. I am not familiar with type 5 concrete, this was done in 2004. The concrete came via the local Ready Mix company. I do not believe it was anything but the ordinary form and pour concrete that is generally used. I know this neighbor built the entire structure by himself. Except for the roof trusses, he had a couple friends with a hoist to help him put up the roof trusses.
Iowa is a very wet state so water drainage disputes happen pretty often. You should be able to find a lawyer fairly easily to get this cleared up. Or hire an engineer to help you get the water off your property.
Either way you’ll get it resolved
That really is not an option at this point. My question about the building permits is because it is my thoughts that if they were fraudulent and non compliant in the first place there is nothing that can change that fact. They will always be fraudulent and non compliant, right. This neighbor redeveloped his lot as if he already owned my lot. He seemed to believe that since he illegally changed the frontage of his property to be the alley, he considered my back yard as his backyard. This is a complex story. There was a civil case the order was ignored. I had grounds for appeal but by this time I had been intentionally exposed to chemicals used as a weapon to eliminate me from my property. After no compliance to the civil court order and no protection from law enforcement I had no option but to flee to escape the chemicals. I did this after 5 years a exposure and the effects the chemicals had on my skin made it unbearable to wear clothes, I was blind and homeless for the following 4 years. This case is complex and unprecedented. But I did follow standard procedure to remedy the problem, the court orders were violated. https://poisonedbymyneighborfromhell.com
Give up your crusade and seek out a competent therapist. They can help you let go of this and the reduced stress will benefit your health.
Its ok for my State and Constitutional private property rights to be violated? In a brutal chemical attack to eliminate me? Why is that ok? This was my pursuit of happiness, now I have chronic condition that never stops, have to travel to university hospital regularly for treatment, Never had so much as poison ivy before the glyphosate exposure.
They have advised me that victims assistance should be applied.
I've tried to read and follow your first post but admit that it's beyond me. After all these years no one is going to do anything about permits unless you hire a lawyer and sue and that could drag out for years. Nothing that anyone here has to say will have any relevance to your issue.
PARAGRAPHS!
I am really sorry, I am well aware that my writing skills are lacking. I get very anxious when writing. You may be able to understand it better if you view my attempt at a website https://poisonedbymyneighborfromhell.com In my defense about timeliness, I have never had a need for an attorney prior to this. I was naive, actually believed people stood behind their oaths, this has been a reality check. After a civil court order citing my right to use my property was violated. I did not know what to do, I contacted my US Senator Charles Grassley. He advised me that he would request an inquiry from the FBI and that they would contact me, I waited and waited and he responded to my requests for action telling me to be patient, after a couple years he advised me that he requested a 2nd inquiry and that the FBI would be contacting me, Ok its been ten years and no FBI contacted me. I am very patient but come on now, when a US Senator advises you that they are acting on your behalf I would like to believe it.
I just wanted to know how and who deals with fraudulent building permits issued by CIties.
I pray you get the help you need.
Is this the way that fine homebuilders would go about redeveloping a property, fraudulent permits, I don't think the owner would be able to let you slide on fraudulent, unsigned and no fee paid for a building permit., just saying.
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Every person that doesn't agree with you is in on a conspiracy. The Mayor, the town council, the Sheriffs Dept. The city clerk, the states attorney, the FBI..........
I am an upholsterer by trade, not a writer, i am a lefty and I find putting actions in words very difficult. That is how my body looks today from being exposed to glyphosate. It has been worse. It is quite painful.
Every person simply took this neighbors word as a fact. When in fact he is a pathological liar. The evidence shows that over and over again. The investigator who come to my home specifically to review the hard copy evidence that I have proving my allegations. Advised me that he was not going to review any evidence, that I could just tell him the story. I told him I could not tell this story, I have the hard copy documents supporting my allegation in chronological order, it took me six years to do that. He still insisted I verbally tell him the story and gave me 2 1/2 hours to do it. I already knew the sheriff had contacted an investigator friend of his and told him his version who in turn told the investigator that came to my home. Later the investigator contacted me and advised me that based on what the third party of the sheriff told him and what I told him he determined no to investigate. lol I am not experienced in the legal process but I do know that hearsay is not evidence. I also sent him an email proving the sheriff has an existing conflict of interest with the opposing party. Its not about agreeing with me. It's about my right to have control of what takes place on my property. Did you review the evidence? How many city clerk can commit two counts of fraud and still be employed? How many do you know. Fraud is a criminal offense. The mayor sold the damn property to this guy, he is the one who made the statement on public record that a builders signature alleviates the city liability, at that time I presented the unsigned building permit. They implicate themselves. The county detective was his brother, he has no jurisdiction or authority to act as a city building official. For christ sakes it doesn't take an attorney to see what the evidence supports. Not one thing have I suggested they don't agree with me about. They have not followed the law in any action that caused me harm.