I sent an inquiry to the permitting department and have not heard back.

That is like 1031 Exchanges that you can do with a good Title Company who has that Department.

@Presley Becker visit city Building & Assessing Departments to see if any open permits or tickets, or recent history.What are city requirements regarding inspections and registrations?

As a dear friend of mine always says, "be in the room".  

Your best bet is to talk with the zoning department and let them know the situation.  

We had a proposed driving range in my town and the State Department of Transportation was going to require them to have netting that was 80ft high due to proximity of a road.

One other question that your carpenter / building department / insurance company may flag relates to the spacing between balusters, which has decreased over the years.

In my market, the zoning and plans approval team are pretty friendly and free to ask, so before you spend a dollar, I would give the local building department/zoning department a call and see if you can get answers.If they are not very friendly, than an architect would likely be my next call.  

I can tell you a reinstatement and a payoff quote come from the same department in a bank and, follow the same parameters per federal rule.Maybe it's pulling off a touch down with 1 minute to go but sounds like maybe scoring on the wrong end of the field. 

I had a homeless family destroy my kitchen and it was an absolute bear to get the Department of Homeless Services to help.