Tampa Fl. improvement permit?remodel

[crash1371]

I have a friend that just bought a $700,000 house on one of the canals in Tampa, the contractor went to the city to pull permits to get started and was told that there is a law that says you can't over improve an existing house. Is this right and how do you work around this? It is a total gut and go again. And should not the contractor known about this any help would be appreciated

[mhg]

never heard of such a thing

never heard of a govt. entity to refuse to take your money

Any building dept. that I have had contact with here and in north Fl. there were

a lot less inspecting and a lot more tax collectors

When growing up in Tampa I never had the need to do business with the building dept. there

Mike

[Boz]

Hmmmmm.... sounds like a classic HOA issue rather than a "law". Chances are excellent that a $700K house on a canal is in a community that is (over)controlled by an HOA.

[marshwabbit]

i think it depends on the scope of the project. if he's spending more than 50% of the existing value, the existing structure must be brought up to code. if the house is on a slab, that's where flood elevation "issues" will arise. the architect / designer and contractor should have known about this, and the realtor too.

[Jup31]

What Rabbit said. If he is doing a major remodel he may have to do it in phases to avoid having to elevate the house. It's a fairly common practice with waterfront property.