I have a ten unit apartment building that I've owned for about 7 years... it is a low income property but I've tried my best to maintain it to the best of my ability. I bought the property from an out of town landlord so I got a good deal on it.
To make a long story short, a disgruntled tenant who I let move in with no money down.... only with a section 8 certificate, complained to the chief of the fire department (which is across the street along with the police station) about a bad switch in the apartment.. She basically did this because she found another place to live and had to have a reason to "get out of my building" and get her voucher back. This created a whole host of problems for me over the past year.... It triggered a full state inspection from the fire marshall on my building....
I was there when he did the inspection.... it was a big deal.. it was almost as if they were on a witch hunt. I have never witnessed such pompous attitudes in my lifetime.... He came back with a report that I must bring the building up to the current code.... install sprinklers, hard wired smoke detectors, etc. I knew that I was exempt from this because the building was grandfathered in.. I promptly had my attorney send him a letter detailing why I should not have to do such repairs. He sent a revised list of demands, which I thought were fair.
Fast forward a few months and my property manager meets him to go over the progress. He was not satisfied with how quickly things are moving and is requiring AGAIN that we have hard wired smoke detectors, etc. This guy is just unreal.... Do they have the authority to just make me do anything (though I am exempt) without due process? Do I have zero rights as a landlord? No other building in the small city is required to have these features... I am just beside myself that bureaucrats can impose such crazy rules on us when we are clearly exempt. Has anyone else run into this, any ideas on how I should handle this? I mean this guy is just on a power trip and getting out of hand, it is insane.
The building is directly across the street from city hall, polic and fire stations.. It is almost as it they are getting together to give me a hard time so I end up losing it someway or they get it underhandedly... I have heard that they want to make it a parking lot... The building is over 100 years old and was made into apartments in the 70's.. I really would appreciate any advice anyone can give me, I feel like they are "out to get my building"..
