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Unfinished Business
The owner of this house on G Street NE was issued a building permit in 2002. Neighbors say work stopped a year ago.
(By Katherine Frey For The Washington Post)
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She has told D.C. officials that the project deadlines have slipped because she had to repair damages to the neighbors' yards and ensure the integrity of the building.
Godette added, "My understanding is that when you obtain the permit, you must begin construction within a year, and there's nothing else required that I know of."
Patrick J. Canavan, director of the D.C. Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Department, said that the District's goal "is to make sure that construction occurs in as safe a manner as possible" and that D.C. building permits are valid unless work doesn't start within a year of the permit being issued or if work is suspended or abandoned for a year.
The permit can be extended for six months at a time, up to three extensions, "if there is a good reason," such as the homeowner facing a financial hardship or being unable to find a good contractor, said Canavan.
If the permit lapses, he said, the homeowner has to file for a new permit and pay all the fees again.
The G Street situation is complicated, said Theresa Lewis, the Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Department's deputy director of operations, because Godette did begin work within a year after the permit was issued in November 2002 and because she wrote the D.C. government about a year ago that she had had to do "a substantial amount" of work to try to correct damage to the neighbors' yards. "We're not sure [the permit] has lapsed," Lewis said.
Lewis said Godette has said "that she is interested in tearing it down" because her engineer "has advised her" that it would be better to "raze and reconstruct."
"Our real issue is that if there is going to be construction happening that we make sure that she's not hurting anybody," Canavan said
Canavan added that the department is "hearing more and more [from residents] about permits expiring" and is "looking at ways to have contractors validate permits annually." He said he is concerned that some people are using permits "to prevent properties from being registered as vacant" and being required to make repairs.
Another concern, said Christopher Flack, a department staff member with a program meant to speed the permitting process, is unpermitted construction.
The District's illegal construction unit, which became permanent about a month and a half ago, conducted 993 inspections that resulted in fines last year during a pilot run, said Flack. "For the new fiscal year, they are operating after hours a lot of times because we find that a lot of homeowners are doing the illegal activity after our inspectors have gone home," he said.
How different local jurisdictions deal with problem properties varies.
