Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida
Open Permits
I closed on a house that had two open permits. The seller verbaly agreed to be responsible to close them after the closing since it was so close the holidays. He managed to close one of them, butthe second one has ''complications''. The permit includes electrical work that was done, a/c replacement, doors and windo replacement and wooden fence replacement. According the the building inspector the windows (8 of them) were not installed correctly and are not properly secured to the house. The doors have to be better secured to the house, also. The fence has already been replaced and he said that it was ''up to code.'' He said he will not look at any other part of the permit until the windows and doors are corrected. If the inspector comes back and the house fails again, can the seller chose not to be responsible for the permits? And if so, then what are my options?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Open Permits
The contractor who pulled the permit is also responsible for closing out their permits, so as an alternative, and to make things go quicker, you may wish to contact the contractor.
Re: Open Permits
Unless you have witesses to his agreement you may be out of luck. Verbal agreements are generally not worth the paper they are not written on.