[Mpls] Minneapolis Inspections

[Allen]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone that's dealt with city inspectors made
them point out the regulations regarding the changes + dbl checked that
they're being properly interpreted?  I'm asking this because my impression
of inspectors is that they tend to do what they think is right but that
doesn't always coincide with ordinances nor with when they can be applied.
I'm not being cynical, there are a lot of things to keep track of.  And of
course there are some that find it easier just to make some up.  This was
the experience that my parents had when doing their own general contracting
when building a home.  Mom would play dumb and have the inspector point out
the ordinance "so her husband could understand what needs to be done because
she can't explain this stuff well".  It might help to avoid having to do
some work in these cases.

Allen Graetz
Lowry Hill

-----Original Message-----
From: mpls-bounces at mnforum.org [mailto:mpls-bounces at mnforum.org] On Behalf
Of Jane Strauss
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 7:04 AM
To: mpls at mnforum.org
Subject: [Mpls] Minneapolis Inspections

I agree that Inspections has not changed all that much.  When I purchased my

home, the brick and stucco (ie not wood frame) "mother in law" cottage in 
the rear was rented, as it had been for decades.  In fact it was built 
before the main house.

I continued to rent it.  At some point, some unidentified person reported 
that I had "people living in my garage."  You got it.  I have a garage 
tucked under the house (large enough for a beetle or model A) but no garage 
on the alley, only a one bedroom house with full basement.

Suddenly it was open season.  I was in process of painting so they could not

get me for that.  Instead I was subject to full inspection, including the 
demand that I replace several glass block windows with crank out openings in

the middle (which we suspected were structural) with windows, and a large 
number ofother things.

Result?  Our tenants now have to pay more for their hot water because the 
only way we could comply with orders in any cost effective manner was to 
replace an almost new gas hot water heater with an electric one, the wall is

now less stable, because we had to replace the structural glass block with  
windows which now only have headers, and my equity in the house has been 
substantially diminished by the significant loans I had to take out.  Oh 
yes, and my tenant is much less happy ecause she felt safer with the glass 
block than with the casement windows which were all I could find that had 
sufficient openings for Inspections and would approximate fitting in the 
existing openings.

The clincher for all of this is that I have been trying to keep that 
property at below market rent to add to the stock of truly affordable 
housing, but  I'll probably have to raise the rent to market rate just to 
cover the added loans if I don't get a substantial increase in pay soon 
(unlikely, as I am currently in my 50s and looking for work, having been 
downsized by a nonprofit due to our current wonderful  economic situation in

this state!).

Jane Strauss
Longfellow


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