Open Permits And Survey Required On Property

[JiminyCricket]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Wisconsin

I recently purchased a home. Due to the number of partially finished projects in the home I put as part of my offer the contingency that all permits on the home and property had been closed. This was agreed upon the offer acceptance document. Three months after moving in a found out that the garage addition had an outstanding permit. After working with the township the permit was closed with no expense on my part. This spring I received a notice from the county that a survey had been required for the garage addition and had not been completed. This was required within 30 days to avoid a fine. I hired a surveyor ($800.00)who determined that the garage was too close to the street setback. The County has not granted a variance but they stated they would just leave my property in a state of noncompliance. In the future if I want to be granted a permit for any further construction I may be required to remove 7 feet from the front of the garage. This would render it useless for storage of vehicles. I noted that the previous owners signed a document with the title company stating that there were no outstanding permits on the property.

Do I have any legal recourse against the previous owners or the title company? It is a lesson learned that I should have had a survey done before closing but I incorrectly assumed that since they attested to this with the title company I would be safe.

Thanks.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If I understand, you put in a contingency that all of the permitting issues had to be resolved by closing. You closed anyway, either because you weren't aware of the outstanding issue or because you simply wanted to close. If that's the case, you can't "undo" the closing based upon the outstanding (and now closed) permit. Further, that permit has now been closed at no cost to you, so at least by the literal language of what you describe as the contingency the issue is resolved.

I don't see how the title company would have any responsibility for the defects. You aren't claiming any sort of defect in your title.

If there was misrepresentation by the seller, you may have a claim. I wold expect the seller to respond by raising questions about your own due diligence, and whether this was missed by your own inspectors when you were buying the property. There's also a question of damages - the problem here being one of theoretical future harm, not actual, present, out-of-pocket losses or loss of use of the garage. That is, you may have a case against the seller, but under these facts I'm not sure that it's worth pursuing - the costs of litigation could be substantial, and it isn't clear what damages you could recover.

Consider trying to get a free consultation with a local real estate lawyer, as you need to figure out what you can realistically do now - before statutes of limitations run - not ten or fifteen years from now when you run into problems after seeking a permit for additional construction.