Complaint Review: City Of Phill L&I -

The mayor is actively seeking investors to help beautify the city of brotherly love. This not only gets rid of a lot of boarded up property all over the city that is not only an eyesore for the neighbors but a huge safety concern as well. His plan will also increase the city’s revenue with increased taxes. It also opens up a ton more construction jobs and all around makes a lot of sense. It is a win-win for everyone, but did he inform L&I and the other city workers of his plan? My experience is a big fat NO. This is my story about the big mistake I made in buying property in the city of Philadelphia. I hope this will help at least one person not to make the same mistakes I did.

It all started in November of 2013. I found, with the help of my realtor, what I thought to be the perfect property. It was a bank owned corner lot in the Bridesburg section. The property was set-up as a three unit building, a two bedroom apartment on the second floor, a one bedroom apartment on the ground floor and a store unit. It has been this way on the books as far as I can tell since the sixties.

I placed a bid on the property and it was accepted. I pay the City $103 and get my U&O which states the property is in fact 3 units in total, 2 apartments and one commercial store front. This is where the nightmare begins…

As soon as the property closed I began working on the second floor two bedroom apartment. I called L&I numerous times to confirm with them what I would need as far as permits. Each time I was told no permits where needed.

Since this property was bank owned I do not know the history. The second floor was almost completed and it looked like the owner before me ran out of money and the bank took it back. The one bedroom apartment and the store downstairs was a completely different story. I knew I needed permits and a whole lot more work in those units. My plan was to complete the second floor, get a tenet in place and use that income to fix up the remainder of the building.

Shortly after work began and inspector named Frank comes walking into the building and stops my contractor from completing the work on the bathroom floor. The inspector puts a stop order on the building and says there has not been any permits for this property in years and all the work that has been done in the past has to have a permit and inspected.

I talk to the inspector. He explains that I am responsible for all the work that has been done in the building since it was first erected. I as him how am I supposed to know the work in the past never had permits pulled or been inspected. He did not really have an answer for me. He tells me I need to get an electrician and a plumber to pull permits for everything that “looked new” and get it inspected.

I knew there would be snags in this process and maybe even more so since this is a new venture for me but never thought things would go to were they are heading.

The plumber came out and looked over the property. According to the way the property is zone everything has to be copper pluming and cast iron. All the PVC has to be replaced. So a almost ten thousand unexpended dollars later the plumbing issues are resolved. The permits where obtained, work completed and inspected. So the plumbing violations should be removed right? Almost a year later the violation is still on the books. The city’s answer, “It takes time for the paper work to flow through the system” It takes a year? Is the paper work traveling via pony express to California and back?

Next is electrical. If you think plumbing is bad you have not seen anything yet. Since this building is three units I have to put in a fire alarm system. This system cost $3600 and has to be monitored at the rate of $50/month. OK, if I need it I need it. That work is completed.

Now since I have a fire alarm system I have to have a “owners panel” So now the electrician has to put in a forth meter just for the fire alarm and now I have an electric bill every month for the forth meter and the fire alarm. But wait it gets better.

Now the electrician has to re-wire the entire two bedroom apartment. He has to move light switches and outlets up or down a matter of inches to meet the new code. He has to install a four-wire 220 line for the stove in the kitchen. I talked to the inspector (Mike) why the three wire 220 line was not good enough. He explaied to me that a lot of the newer stoves now come with computers in them and they split the 220 internally for the computer and this is why the code was changed. Now we had already bought the new stove for the apartment and it was sitting in the kitchen. I showed him that the stove only requires three wires. He would not allow the three wires. So another ten thousand dollars go by and the two bedroom apartment is now up to 2015 code. No other building in the neighborhood is even close to being up to code but we are.

So the violation should be removed right? Guess again.

Now, the property was almost ready to move in when I bought it over a year. Now with all the plumbing and electrical work the apartment looks like a war zone with all the holes in the walls, floors and ceilings. So many thousands of dollars later the contractor gets the place back in shape.

Now we need to get our rental license. In the city of Philly you need to buy a license to rent out an apartment. We go into the city to get our license for only the two bedroom apartment on the second floor already to pay the $100 and the clerk tells us the building has two apartments and that we have to buy both licenses at once. They will not sell just one license. Ok, it is what it is.

Are you sitting down? We get notification from L&I (John) that the U&O we received over a year ago was incorrect. The same U&O that required us to spend many months and thousands of dollars to bring the building up to code was wrong. In emails he clearly admits the mistake was his and here is your new U&O for one apartment and one store. WHAT?

How can a building that has been set-up as three units, sold as three units been operated as three units for decades suddenly change after we get it up to code? Are the horror stories you hear about L&I true? Do I have to offer them a bribe to do there job? I don’t play those games.

Now I have to get an attorney involved and spend many thousands of dollars for the city to do their job?

Or, do I let the property sit and rot and let the city take it back for non-payment of taxes in ten years or whenever they feel like doing their job.