Historic Home: “Earll place” Phoenix Zoning/compliance help

[Ryan Saint-Amour]

I’m currently considering buying a home in PHX, AZ in an historic neighborhood. The current sellers have begun construction to “merge” the two units into one, but were red tagged so I’m sure they didn’t go through the proper city approvals and more to do so. 

Who would you use/call out to asses the damage and see what is recommended to do? A city inspector, an engineer, etc.

What’s your recommendation? I would prefer to keep the units separate if the deal closes.

[Ryan Normand]

1) Check a City of Phoenix zoning map to make sure the parcel is actually zoned multifamily. There is a publicly available GIS map for free online. 

2) Check with the City of Phoenix Planning and Development division to see if there are any special limits to what you can do or special permits you need to pull since the home is in a historic district.

3) Have a contractor come out and look at it to assess the damage and give you an estimate for how much it will cost to repair.