Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Tree / Construction Permit Breach
Our local city council member mediated a resolution to an appeal we filed for a building permit on a house that sits across the street from our. As part of this mediation, the builder agreed to a # of supplementary conditions to the city's original set of permit conditions. This document was signed by Builder, Appelants (us) and our City Council representative. In exchange for this agreement we dropped the appeal
We have recently learned that the builder has not lived up to the terms of the agreement. Specifically he has opted to ignore the requirement to provide an explicit protective fencing at a 12' radius from the protected tree, and currently plans to have a corner of the house within the 12' zone
My questions are:
Given that all parties signed the agreement do we have standing to sue builder for breach of contract?
Given that the council member also signed the document, do we have a reasonable position for arguing that the city muct enforce the terms of the permit.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Tree / Construction Permit Breach
you may have all signed a document, but it's not necessarily a contract. the situation is somewhat complex and you should have an attorney look over all the documents to give you proper advice.