Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
City official causes monetary loss on real estate deal.
Escrow on real estate deal-sale of vacant land. Sell price 369K-my equity 240K. Some Fire Dept code issues related to site improvement. There is also a process where owner can request District Review Board waive code requirements case by case. Buyer went to the Fire District office, met with inspector regarding code requirements. Buyer also inquired about the review board process. Fire Inspector stated that review board was not resident friendly and were not going to offer any varience to the code. Buyers Real Estate Agent encountered same response on separate occassion from the same Inspector. Information resulted in the buyer withdrawing offer and canceling deal. My problem: How can Fire Inspector presume to know what a separate authority (the review board) will or will not decide on any particular case. He has not seen or heard any evidence, arguments, justifications or other info that might persuade the review board to rule in favor land owner. My opinion is this Fire Inspector over-stepped his authority and cost me $240,000 and a subsequent deal contingent on original sale. Do I have a legal case against the city to recover my damages?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: City official causes monetary loss on real estate deal.
Not my area.
Re: City official causes monetary loss on real estate deal.
You should probably talk to a real estate attorney regarding whether you can enforce the deal -- that is, unless the purchase was contingent on obtaining a variance. If nothing else, you might be entitled to liquidated damages, again depending on the real estate sales contract.
Nevertheless, the fire official probably was only expressing an opinion about the political process that such applications face before the board. If so, it's only an opinion. Certainly, if the board had refused to rezone the property, and you had grounds to undertake an appeal, you would do so. Before you sell the property, you might want to investigate further the possibility of having it rezoned if it makes it more marketable.
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