subservious
Registered User
Hey everyone. I purchased the home approximately 10 months ago. It is in an unincorporated neighborhood in Seminole County, Florida. Needless to say, it is not the "nicest" looking neighborhood and there are obvious code violations at probably every house.
Well for some reason, I received a letter from code enforcement for the carport attached to my home. In the letter, they cited code 105.1. It is an aluminum carport that has been through MANY hurricanes. Looking at the permits, I can see the original carport was permitted to be converted in to a room back in 1997. With the permit being that old though, I can not see all of the details on it. My neighbor is still in contact with the people that converted the old carport and they said that the new carport that was built was part of the old carport conversion. I asked code enforcement about viewing the original drawings and they said that they do not keep records that old.
Another issue is that the carport is approximately 3-4 feet from the property line. The setbacks list it at 7.5 feet. There are a lot of sheds and carports close to the property line in this neighborhood, so I have a feeling that the requirement was different 20 years ago.
I noticed the first Florida building code went in to effect on March 1, 2002. With the carport being built in 1997-1998, I am not sure if this can benefit me at all.
Am I screwed here? From what I can gather, my only option is to demolish the existing carport. With the setback requirements, that leave me less than 8 feet to build on, so I couldn't even rebuild the carport if I wanted to. Code enforcement mentioned detaching it from the home and making it free standing, but they couldn't really say for sure if that was an option or not. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Well for some reason, I received a letter from code enforcement for the carport attached to my home. In the letter, they cited code 105.1. It is an aluminum carport that has been through MANY hurricanes. Looking at the permits, I can see the original carport was permitted to be converted in to a room back in 1997. With the permit being that old though, I can not see all of the details on it. My neighbor is still in contact with the people that converted the old carport and they said that the new carport that was built was part of the old carport conversion. I asked code enforcement about viewing the original drawings and they said that they do not keep records that old.
Another issue is that the carport is approximately 3-4 feet from the property line. The setbacks list it at 7.5 feet. There are a lot of sheds and carports close to the property line in this neighborhood, so I have a feeling that the requirement was different 20 years ago.
I noticed the first Florida building code went in to effect on March 1, 2002. With the carport being built in 1997-1998, I am not sure if this can benefit me at all.
Am I screwed here? From what I can gather, my only option is to demolish the existing carport. With the setback requirements, that leave me less than 8 feet to build on, so I couldn't even rebuild the carport if I wanted to. Code enforcement mentioned detaching it from the home and making it free standing, but they couldn't really say for sure if that was an option or not. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!