8 Comment

• Stating the Obvious August 1, 2011 at 9:43 am

  Sooo…. you need a permit to take down a shed? Also, I’m pretty sure that house is the shed they are talking about; judging by the street view.
• Cody August 1, 2011 at 7:54 pm

  You need a permit for ANYTHING. There was a ‘drywall repair’ (or something like that) permit notice reported on swamplot one time.
  .
  I bought an old 1940’s building, and soon after a window literally fell out. I replaced it the next day with a nice new energy efficient window. My worker must have left some of the old frame by the house as a few hours later the PriusPatrol came by and reg tagged me. I was fined $250 or so for replacing the window w/o a permit.
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  Disgusting.
• Ross August 1, 2011 at 8:29 pm

  Cody, you either made someone mad, or they don’t look hard at residential properties. There were 3 new driveways on our hood last year that didn’t have permits, and a couple of window replacement jobs. No sign of the Prius Patrol. We had all of our permits plumbing, sewer, windows, and driveway. That means I don’t have to lie on the disclosure form if we ever sell.

  Would the City have understood if you went for the permit after installing the window? That’s sort of an emergency thing.
• Cody August 2, 2011 at 7:48 am

  Ross: A broker fiend of mine ran a report and multifamily in the inner loop had something like 20% of all habitability inspections, while being 2% of Houston’s number of multifamily buildings (I realize this isn’t exactly the same thing, but it shows there is much more attention paid by inspectors to this area).
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  The inner loop, specifically in/around the Montrose area tends to have a higher than normal number of inspectors driving around. Maybe because the Mayor lives in this area, maybe because it’s so close to the permit office. Maybe because of the land/property values and easy/older targets they know people will pay.
  .
  Most of my experience is in multifamily, but the single family I bought to live in (Montrose) had a few layers of asphalt shingles over old wood shake roof. Basically a fireball waiting to happen. So the first thing I did after buying was have my roofers replace. It was about 3 minutes into ripping off my old roof that I got red tagged for not having a permit. Pretty amazing speed (and yes, I was at fault for that one. I should have gotten a permit. I got busted :)
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  Regarding this fourplex.. I told them about the old window basically falling out. I also told them that I wasn’t aware you needed a permit to change out a window (that’s true). Didn’t matter.
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  Bright side is I got my permit, then changed all 20-something windows in that old building.
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  I have a billion stories that are similar. Maybe I’ll start a side blog about it. I already have the domain :)
• Matt Mystery August 2, 2011 at 9:24 am

  The reason why the Prius Patrol is so active in the Inner Loop is probably because there are so many naughty little children who defied “Mother” and signed those petitions to withdraw from the historic districts.

  Be careful what you sign. “Mother” is watching.
• PYEWACKET2 August 2, 2011 at 10:09 am

  #4 @ Cody,

  Are we talking roofing permits in ‘historic’ districts or permits in any old Houston place?

  I’m asking because after Hurricane Alicia (yes, 1983) folks all over my inner loop neighborhood were replacing roofs. Many of the men, including my husband, were doing the work themselves and I know some of those men did not get any kind of permit.

  Same thing after Ike.

  We are not in a COH historic district. Thank goodness.
• Cody August 3, 2011 at 12:26 am

  Pye: This was in a historic district, yes, but what’s needed is just the normal roof permit. Nothing special due to historic.
• Oh My Gawd !!! August 8, 2011 at 9:19 am

  Mayor Annise( another permit crazed techocrat ) has declared the prius patrol to tag everything. The fee hungry lesbian at it again !!