When you built your garage, did you get flack?

[XS29L9B]

New to this site, I have been reading some of the stories about garage construction and some of the woes from neighbors or zoning. Just thought I'd post a poll and ask, "did you have trouble..."

When we built our detached garage, the guy across the street had a fit - said we ruined his view of OUR woods...

Another, wrote a letter and stuck it in my mailbox (sending a copy to the HOA) asking how such a monstrosity could have been approved, suggesting it was 10 ft from the road. It's actually 75 ft. away.

What have been your experiences?

 

[OHMS LAW]

What to know is who gave these nazis authority to fine and foreclose on homes

 

[XS29L9B]

In the case of my garage, the HOA laughed it off, as they approved the garage in the first place.

 

[dladcock]

Our property was derelict, so anything we did was o.k. by our neighbors. Most are older and improved their value as much as ours. The gentleman that lives behind us (WWII Vet) comes running when I fire-up an engine or get into a big project. He once brought his chair and sat in the garden, in the sun, and just chilled. About twice a season, I weed-eat the bank on either side of their street going in just because. In short, I got it made with the current neighbors, but as they move on, I don't know what it will be like. Of course, I'll be the old guy then.

dla

 

[OldTC]

Mine went up on a 3 acre lot,....my mother in law's house is a hundred yards south of it and she loves it. She says she gets to watch me work in it when there's nothing on television.

The neighbor several hundred yards to the north of it says as long as she can still tell whether or not my mother-in-law is home by looking through my shop's front and rear windows from her deck, she's ok with it. She's asked when she can move in 'cause it's bigger than her house.

 

[thightower]

Dad built mine in '81 on the 5 acres I live on today. 1/2 mile out of the city limits. Nobody close enough to say anything anyway.

 

[Kevin C]

Only one neighbor had problem and would take hissy fits on a regular basis.

He felt the garage was too big and I hammered too loudly. A big complaint was I put in nails with a nail gun but drove them flush with a hammer (I did all the shear walls this way, nail depth was something the inspectors looked for).

He was pretty pissed off about that detail. He came over and asked why I had to do it that way and that it was really annoying him.

He also complained that the backhoe was squeaky and about five thousand other things. It was never a discussion, he would just vent from just outside the property line.

I just kept on working.

 

[bgarrett]

Some people have no sense of humor. My neighbor asked if I got a permit and I said, "Why would I do that?" He sputtered..."This is my mothers property and we dont want the property values to go down." I said, "Of course I got a permit." (and I had) At lunch the concrete pour was finished and everyone left except the guy running the concrete finisher (big electric fan-looking machine) and a building inspector showed up and told him he had to stop work. The idiot inspector never looked to see if I had a permit. I called the inspection office repeatedly, no one would talk to me. Next day that neighbor who mentioned property values going down, apologized for calling the inspectors office and said, "This is my mothers property and we dont want property taxes to go up!?
Half the people in the world are below average.

 

[Al Bundy]

Some people have no sense of humor. My neighbor asked if I got a permit and I said, "Why would I do that?" He sputtered..."This is my mothers property and we dont want the property values to go down." I said, "Of course I got a permit." (and I had) At lunch the concrete pour was finished and everyone left except the guy running the concrete finisher (big electric fan-looking machine) and a building inspector showed up and told him he had to stop work. The idiot inspector never looked to see if I had a permit. I called the inspection office repeatedly, no one would talk to me. Next day that neighbor who mentioned property values going down, apologized for calling the inspectors office and said, "This is my mothers property and we dont want property taxes to go up!?
Half the people in the world are below average.

Why didn't you have the copy of the permit that is supposed to be posted at the site?

 

[GTO]

Smooth Sailing here

 

[47p2]

My architect posted plan details as per local authority regulations require through every adjoining neighbour so that none were missed off the list, no complaints were received and we thought we had cracked it...until the build started and they all started complaining, but by then it was too late to do anything about it

 

[rburke65]

I got more trouble from my wife than I did from anyone else! The neighbors wanted to know what business I was going to go into with a "building" that big!

 

[Stuart in MN]

So far, 82% of us voted for smooth sailing which is good to hear.

 

[XS29L9B]

So far, 82% of us voted for smooth sailing which is good to hear.

Yeah, but the stories are getting good!!

 

[BroncoJAK]

One more for smooth sailing. Neighborhood was a perfect fit for us. Restrictions, but ones we could live with. Mine is a 40x60 steel building and there was already one in the neighborhood when we built our house. Developer lives here and was able to be choosey with who their nieghbors were going to be. Glad we made the cut.

 

[JKJavelin]

We live on a country road and both neighbors didn't mind and the one on that side liked watching the progress. Those people are the best neighbors and are in their 80's, and I hope they live forever. We made the garage nice to look at and set it back even with theirs so it isn't a detraction to them.
JK

 

[Kevin54]

Everything went smooth with me until it came to the driveway. Come to find out I needed a permit to put in a drive. Then found out that in our county that now, you are only allowed one entrance and egress combined. So you have to go in and out of the same place. When I built my garage, I now had three due to a circular drive at the house. Then when I was having some dump trucks coming in through the pasture next door, I got my *** ripped for having heavy trucks pulling in and out. Reason being is that they were in the process of paving the road. Told them to kiss my ***. If they didn't want heavy trucks running off road, stop the tractors also. Other than that everything was smooth sailing.

 

[Gary S]

I had no problems here. The neighbors came by to watch with questions.

"What are you building?" (a garage)
"It is bigger than your house." (right, my pickup is bigger than I am)
"Who is building it for you?" ;(I'm building it myself)
"Where did you learn to build a garage? (I watched my Dad when I was a kid.)
"When are you going to finish it? (I plan to have it done before the snow flies.)

Then, on Labor Day as I was finishing up, 2 months from starting, the neighbor who was waiting for the contractor to finish his new house and was already 30 days late, looked over the fence and said,
"When you started that garage 2 months ago, I never thought you could do it, or that I would still be here to see it happen.
(he moved into his partially finished house in November and the contractor finished 6 months late)

Moral of the story. Never have someone do for you what you can do for yourself if you want it done right and done on time.

 

[nehog]

No problems but two 'funny' stories.

1. The house next door was listed for sale. The real estate agent (a good friend) was showing the house, and showed up early. Came over and helped me install my window! His only comment was that he would be able to more easily sell the house with the garage done, but apparently it didn't hurt much--house was sold quickly.

2. Building inspector and fire chief cruised up one day... I was using a powder nailer on the slab to anchor the angles that hold the walls at the slab. They liked what they saw (me with safety glasses and ear muffs) and the only comment was "Better keep working, winter's coming!" (It was mid-summer, and I was done in lots of time.)

 

[bobemmerich]

My old garage took a tumble (It was derelict and leaning-I kinda helped it with a sawzall ). Asked the locals and as long as I wasn't making it bigger or longer, no one had anything to say. Inspector told me talk to zoning, zoning told me talk to building. I just built it and haven't heard a word since.

 

[Bib Overalls]

There is something to be said about living in the country.

 

[holdover]

I live in the country also, so no neighbor problems, wife wanted me to build a detached garage for years to get the dirt (grease) and smell of painting cars away from the house, was a win-win

 

[jsb025]

Half the people in the world are below average.

+1
Real Education by Charles Murray.I think about how true that statement is almost constantly.

Oh yeah, I haven't built yet...but i anxiously await the day.

 

[bazzateer]

Neighbours on both sides are great (our plots are no more than 24-26' wide). Both OK'd my original garage plans which due to costs have been reduced slightly so I don't expect any issues when it finally gets built (was going to be 36' x 22' but now just 30' x 20').

 

[hidollartoys]

Only trouble I had was no one helped.

Seriously, no trouble with the neighbors or the county.
I live on 27 acres.

 

[XS29L9B]

There is something to be said about living in the country.

I am starting to think about that, more and more...

 

[ben98gs]

I voted "neighbors from hell", but everything happened before I bought the house, but the process went something like this:

- 2,000 sq. ft. pole barn was approved by the HOA and built in 2007 (about 3 or 4 other neighbors built barns of the same size in this 20 lot "neighborhood").
- Neighbor puts her house for sale and claims that "huge barns" are decreasing the value of her home.
- Neighbor sues the 4-5 people with 2,000 sq. ft. barns.
- Judge rules that the barns must be reduced in size to 1,200 sq. ft. Ruling is based upon the fact that the HOA covenants reads that no out buildings can be larger than 1,200 sq. ft. and even though the HOA approved the larger buildings, they had no jurisdiction to approve something outside of the covenants, even if they did allow it universally.
- The barn was modified to fulfill the judges order. So now I have a 1,200 sq. ft. pole barn with an 800 sq. ft attached polished concrete patio.

 

[ben98gs]

If you are bored, the decision is kind of a "funny" read (mentions the neighbors giving "sign language" to the person suing them, etc): http://whisperingmist.com/Resources/Public_55D01_0711_PL630.pdf

 

[JoeFin]

Started out just putting up a shed to store a few machines I couldn't fit into the garage - got "Red Tagged" just as I was finishing up the paint. Neighbor called.

Used it anyway for 3 yrs until I got the permits for adding onto my garage. Ended up tearing it down and saw-cutting the slab it was on for the addition

The Building Dept. Manager flipped out when my plans were approved and permits issued. Wasn't a lot he could do about it as the County had rezoned my lot for Commercial/Residential use.

 

[tnfloorman]

I talked with all of my neighbors that I know before I started and everyone was fine with my plans. Then as the concrete was being poured here comes the jerk up the road claiming to be the head of the architectural committee for the neighborhood. When I told him I thought the covenants had expired and all the members of the committee were either dead or moved away he said he was on the new committee. I asked for a list of that and the new covenants and he said they didn't have anything on paper (I might have been born at night but it wasn't last night). He has since been back one other time and keeps saying everything sounds like it should be fine, but I keep hearing from other neighbors he's going behind my back talking about what I'm doing and not doing. I just laugh everytime he drives by breaking his neck looking back as I'm out there working.

 

[coljar]

No, not much of a problem with the new garage. The city sent me up to the courthouse to discuss if it needed to be commercial coded since it was on commercial property, but once they knew it was for my own use at my house, they said it was fine. As for the neighbors, they weren't a problem, but then again, most rent from me.

 

[senor fozz]

No, not much of a problem with the new garage. The city sent me up to the courthouse to discuss if it needed to be commercial coded since it was on commercial property, but once they knew it was for my own use at my house, they said it was fine. As for the neighbors, they weren't a problem, but then again, most rent from me.

THat is one way to shut em up.

 

[koditten]

Why didn't you have the copy of the permit that is supposed to be posted at the site?

I know its supposed to be posted, but mine stayed in my file. Inspectors all knew it was being built properly. I wasn't going to take the chance of some jag-off stealing it. I couldn't be on site 100% of the time.

 

[koditten]

I had issues with my neighbors to the back of my property. I wanted to request and additional 400 sqft. Variance meeting took place, rear neighbors complained that they didn't want to look at the back of my shop. At that time the shop would have been 200' from rear property line. I was being considerate by putting my shop closer to my house. After neigbors tried to shut me down, I decided to move the shop back to 45' from the property line. Now they even got a bigger view of tha *** end of my shop. Ef 'em.

The best part was the look on his face, when being filmed for the local cable access channel. he told me he was refusing me permission to build my shop. I told him, you don't understand. You are not keeping me from building the shop, you are only keeping me from recieving an extra 400 sqft. You still get to look the back of my shop. It's still getting built. Only now its going me much closer. 4 years later, I still get people reminding me of that good laugh.

Oh, yeah. My shop wifi name is "you're a dusche"

 

[Cyberbear]

I built my two story shop addition adding 1224 sq/ft, giving me a total of 2700 sq/ft under roof, for my woodworking business. I ran into several difficulties with the county, mainly because they had never seen such a large shop addition located in a residential area. Once finished I never again bothered asking permission to improve my private property. After researching the Law, I have since built a 2400 sq/ft shop on another parcel of land w/o permit or permission.

 

[CharlieBrown]

am out of the city limits....so no one can say anything.

Guy bought the property behind my shop...came over and said"your garage is too close to my property line"


sooo,,,,I said lets look at the survey.....and it turns out his addition is over my property line buy 6 inches.....ummmm....he is real nice now.

 

[onething]

We bought the house with an extra detached 2 car garage that the PO had used for woodworking. All was good.
Then I decided to add a lean-to on the back for yard tools. Went to the city for a permit and they said I couldn't use metal siding and only standing seam roof metal was allowed. I flinched and The 30" Flame was the result.
In retrospect, I should have just built the original plan.

 

[redrunner]

I had to get a variance to increase the size. Zoning only allowed for 1000 sf, I wanted and got 2040 sf. I was new to the area. Talked with all the home owners in the area. I left each homeowner a plot map with my proposal on it listing what I had planed and what it was going to look like. With the exception of the steel roof on the shed and the shingles on the house they look the same. Had to go to a special zoning meeting and was approved. I live on 4 acres in the city limits. The best place for the shed was about 125 feet from my house located behind my neighbors house. It is set back about 75 feet from their fence.

The neighbor knows a guy I work with but I really never see the other guy at work. Last year the guy at work told me he had been at a meeting the my neighbor was at and they talked about my shed. The neighbor told him if he had know it was going to be that big he would have fought it. He lost a view of my woods to a view of my front of the shed. Too late. We still talk and get along great, he just would of had me put it some place else.

 

[Doozer75]

The building inspector told me my garage was one of the best built
structures he has seen. Made me happy.

--Doozer

 

[MFolks]

Is it something like this?