Unfinished Business

Because the owner continued to do something each year, the "permit was continually valid" because the county at that time defined "progress" on a project less strictly than it does now, Lynch said. To prompt action, the county took the homeowner to court for violating zoning law by maintaining an illegal storage site of construction material, Lynch said. He does not know if the project has ever been finished.

In the second case, a very large home in the Tysons Corner area "took forever and ever, and also resulted in an inordinate amount of construction material on the site," Lynch said. Zoning officials again cited the owner for having an illegal storage site.

Shawn Kelley, head of the Arlington County inspection services division, said projects that stop amount to "less than a handful a year." Generally, unfinished projects occur because homeowners "have run out of money or a contractor has absconded with their money and they have to fight to get it back in court while trying to hire a new contractor."

In other cases, Kelley says homeowners who are doing the work themselves just fall behind because they have underestimated the time involved.

Another type of problem arises when homeowners fall so far behind that they let permits lapse and then start work without applying again. The county can not only fine those building without permits but also require that walls be torn open so that inspectors can check for any unpermitted interior work. And, in the worst-case scenario, inspectors can require that whole buildings be torn down if they suspect they don't meet required codes and standards.

Kelley estimated that Arlington opens a dozen cases a year on projects being built without permits, but he said there are no hard numbers. The county doesn't have a specific team of inspectors hunting for such houses, he said, although "we've retooled and educated our code enforcement staff to step forward and create cases when they see these houses."

Kelley said neighbors can often be counted on to do the detective work. "It's funny. Neighbors will tell on neighbors. There's quite a bit of word-of-mouth referral going on," he said.

Capitol Hill residents Charles Hudman and John Kuykendall are among those who have tried to blow the whistle on what they contend is an egregious and now half-done project. The two have been calling D.C. regulators for three years about a three-story house being built on what was once a vacant lot next to them on G Street NE.

At first the couple and some neighbors objected to the construction itself, after yards on both sides caved in when the foundation was being installed. They also objected to the scale and size of the project.

Now, Hudman, Kuykendall and other neighbors say the original building permit has long expired. They contend that no work has been done in the year since the owner responded to a stop-work order issued by the District over concerns about the structural integrity of the basement wall and basement slab.

Hudman said they think the owner now "wants to tear the house down and rebuild the whole thing," which will mean even more disturbance to the neighborhood.

The owner, Lisa Godette, said in an interview that she doesn't want to argue about the situation "in the press" and that she doesn't "have to inform the neighbors of my intentions." But she said, "The neighbors have been one of my biggest problems."