When I was just a little kid the people who bought the lot next door to ours dug their basement and started the footings while we were on vacation.
They put the home right on the boundary, within inches of the line, they couldn’t have trimmed the lawn against the house unless they were in our yard. Boy were they mad when dad informed them of the 25’ setback on all buildings.
Making them dig out their poured footings and move the house over started a 14 year Hatfield/McCoy situation between our families. Of course them having to make a 4 point turn to get into their garage on the other side of the house was kind of funny, since they also discovered (from a phone call by dad I think) couldn’t have a garage door facing the road.
Taught me a lifelong lesson. It pays to read the covenants, deed restrictions, and building codes BEFORE you buy or start building.
just read the code ~ looks like the R7 property is probably in violation due to CONTEXTUAL ZONING REQUIREMENTS.
Exactly.
And that’s a smart Dad.
Where I come from, you’re supposed to get building plans approved *before* you start construction, regardless. The building inspector keeps a copy on file and inspects to the drawings on file.
Even my sainted Milton Friedman approve of zoning codes, since poorly constructed or sited buildings certainly have a “neighborhood effect”.
I grew up in Queens, and I went to school with a guy whose house was too close to sea level for building in the 1960’s, but was grandfathered in because it was constructed under the older building codes. Some developer put in a whole slew of new homes on his block that did not meet the newer code. As a result the City of New York filled in all the two story homes on his block up to the top of the first floor, except for his, and raised the grade on the road in front of his home about 10 feet. Basically, looking out the first floor of his house you faced a ten foot pile of dirt in every direction and a steep set of stairs leading up to street level. All the homes on the other three sides were buried by about ten feet of dirt, as was the street, so his home was in the bottom of dirt pit. This is the hamfisted way NYC officials dealt the situation.
Who was their contractor...?