Dear PoPville

Photo by PoPville flickr user ianseanlivingston

“Dear PoPville,

We are a newly formed condominum in DC and are wondering if your management company recommmends an annual sprinkler inspection? We are a small building with less than ten units.

The building was recently renovated and new sprinklers were installed in 2013. A sprinkler inspection was conducted this year (no issues) and are wondering whether this inspection should be done on an annual or less frequent basis. Of course we are concerned about safety, but also trying to find out what is specifically required and business practices. Also, if you have any companies that you would recommend, we would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!”

“Dear PoPville,

My wife and I came home from the weekend away to find that all but one of the peach-sized apples growing in our backyard apple tree were gone. About a dozen or so were taken – the only one remaining looks like a worm got into it. Our backyard is enclosed by an 8-foot brick wall on all sides, so it would be quite an effort for a person to scale just to get some apples, but the disappearance of all but the worm-eaten apple is consistent with a human thief. We can’t imagine a squirrel or a bird could have taken them all, but is it possible that a raccoon or a fox or some other varmint might have done so? Any animals that would be likely to make off with so many? Any birds that could have done it?”

And speaking of racoons another reader asks:

“Labor Day raccoon sighting in Petworth near the Soldiers Home. Not pictured are two other large raccoons whom also shimmied down the neighbor’s downspout from the roof and to the the fence highway in the alley. They are not afraid of humans, and I swear one tried to snag a tomato. I’m afraid some trash issues in the alley may be attracting them. Any one have similar encounters? Should we call 311 or the non-profit City Wildlife?”

Ed. Note: I don’t think the District does anything about racoons (or possoms). You could call a private trapper like Adcock’s who I’ve used in the past. Anyone noticing more racoons than normal this year?

“Dear PoPville,

In March we had to file a lawsuit against the house flippers who sold us our house. Turns out they had illegally renovated our house. The flipper did not even have a D.C. business license. He runs approximately 15 limited liability corporations (LLCs) out of his $2 million house in Potomac, Maryland. Like some (but not all) other house flippers, he runs the house flipping LLCs like shell companies, undercapitalizing them, mixing his personal assets with the LLC assets, and failing to hold any board meetings or to otherwise respect the formal rules that govern LLCs. Those shell companies essentially protect him from liability and make it hard to find out who is behind the shoddy construction. We fully expect that the LLC he used to flip our house has no insurance and no money in it. That means that if we want to recover our losses, our attorney will have to “pierce the corporate veil” of the flipper’s LLC (a potentially expensive proposition) and show that he was using the LLC as an alter ego, that he didn’t respect the rules governing LLCs, and that he was using the LLC to perpetrate fraud.

In addition, the real estate firm for the seller/flipper was not registered and was not in good standing (and thus was also operating illegally in D.C.), and the contractor also had no license and used unlicensed subs.

Examinations of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) building permit records, deeds in the D.C. Recorder of Deeds, pre-flip real estate listings and then post-flip listings strongly suggest that the same flippers who did our house have also illegally renovated dozens of other homes in D.C. They’ve covered up their tracks well, in part by using permits for minor repair work while they greatly exceeded the permits and gutted the place amid a total rehab. Their carefully hidden illegal work includes the tearing down of load-bearing walls or columns to create a superficially nice but structurally defective and non-code compliant open floor plan, floors that sag two inches or more, an asbestos-contaminated HVAC system, a now-collapsing porch built by draping brand new casing over thoroughly rotten wood, a construction-debris-filled sewer line that will likely spew sewage into our basement yet again soon unless we excavate the pipe to replace the whole thing, zero insulation in the walls and ceilings, and several other problems. We plan to keep the house, but we know that if we ever want to be able to sell the house in the future, we will have to disclose all these problems, will have to undertake a significant redo of the house, and be able to show prospective buyers documentation regarding how we fixed each defect. (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user nevermindtheend

“Dear PoPville,

I am considering renting out my Park View area rowhome. While managing the rental myself is certainly an option I am considering, I would be interested to hear from others about the pros and cons of using a rental management company. I am particularly interested in costs of using a company and particular recommendations of specific companies.”