[Little Ray]

I was going to say, “What sort of person ratted out his neighbor on this?”

But, at the source, there is a time line.
Apparently this has been an on-going issue since 2008. It wasn't a sudden thing.

Not that I'm all that crazy about forcing people to get permits to work on their houses, either. As long as they're not creating a public nuisance, who cares?

[allmost]

Undercutting a neighbor’s house is pretty screwed up.

[BuffaloJack]

> I was going to say, “What sort of person ratted out his neighbor on this?”

You wouldn’t believe how petty some neighbors can be.
My next door neighbor neighbor filed a complaint against me, because my wife maintained a bird feeder. The complaint stated that the birds were too noisy for allow him to sleep on Sunday mornings. I had to pay a $75 dollar fine for maintaining a vermin attractor and I had to remove the bird feeder. (By the way, there are no rats in my neighborhood complements of the 13 cats on just my block alone.)