TAMPA, Fla. — Caught up in red tape – about a half dozen people showed up at Thursday's Tampa City Council meeting to urge them to check into how code enforcement is handling complaints at various homes around the city.
Some homeowners say they've spent thousands of dollars and even more than a year of their time trying to settle permit issues from before they owned a property.
Real estate broker David Joseph says it cost him $20,000 to fix problems that code enforcement flagged.
“They kept picking apart every single piece of the house. Once this thing was fixed, another inspector comes. And I'm talking about there was a porch that was enclosed in 1950 that I had to get permitted,” Joseph said.
A reverend in Seminole Heights says his home was flagged when he went to sell and move into a church parsonage. Rev. Dr. Gabriel Morgan of St. Paul Lutheran Church says it ended up costing him $40,000.
“My concern is especially for ordinary homeowners who through no fault of their own purchase a home and do their due diligence and then discover these liabilities are too much for them to bear, and I think it sends a message inadvertently, and I'm going to assume this is not intentional, but the message it sends is only the wealthy and investors can afford the risk of owning homes in our historic neighborhoods,” Morgan said.
After hearing that public comment on the frustrations, the city council will have a discussion at a workshop in February where they were already planning to talk about illegal construction work.