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Daly City Council Buckles to Realtors
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Daly City, California
Facing hundreds of angry residents, the Daly City Council failed to approve a controversial housing resale permit ordinance that would have potentially cost residents thousands of dollars in order to sell their homes.
For weeks, the Daly City populace has been smoldering in quiet rage that was finally vented at the Daly City City Council meeting Monday night.
It was the City government itself that lit the slow burning fire by proposing a program to impose a resale certification program for Daly City homeowners.
What this would have meant for owners of single family residences and duplexes is that prior to selling properties, property owners would be required to submit to a city inspection in order to receive certification that the home contains no unpermitted construction, particularly extra rooms or secondary units.
Over the past year or so, the City of Daly City has been reviewing its General Plan, the document that guides just about every development and growth and issue in a community for sometimes decades.
One item that has caught the attention of many is a proposed resale inspection permit process contained in the Draft Housing Element of the General Plan. As contemplated, the program would require a resale permit prior to the close of escrow for all property transactions involving all single family and duplex residences.
Sounds simple and many communities already have such a program. But for homeowners, particularly of aging housing stock like that in Daly City, this could be a huge liability. If any previous owner had made any structural changes, perhaps a re-do of a bathroom or adding a room out back, the current owner trying to sell their home could be on the hook for a whole range of code violations that would need to be fixed.
For the City, the idea was meant to increase the “…abatement of dangerous living conditions caused by the construction of illegal rooms and additions.” But for homeowners, the issue touched a nerve at the thought of inspectors walking through their house and demanding costly fixes just when they are trying to move on.
The San Francisco Association of Realtors, which also covers Daly City, has also joined in the fray. The Realtors, likely fearing a burdensome process that could stifle home sales in an already weak market, launched an all out assault. The Realtors have issued at least three city-wide mailers lambasting the City for the proposal. The mailers include cartoon images of “Inspection Police” raiding local homes looking for costly violations and emptying the pockets of unsuspecting homeowners.
On the back page of the mailers the Realtors have includes the names, contact information, terms of office and date of election for each member of the City Council in a not-so subtle implication that the proposal on the table may come back to haunt them at election time.
Apparently the strategy worked. At the day of reckoning, the City Council buckled under pressure from approximately 300 or so residents who packed the City Council meeting according to published reports. Residents on scene placed the number at about 500 attendees with nearly 50 residents speaking against the draft housing element proposed by the City management and Council.
The Council did take the action to forward the draft housing element of the General Plan to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for review as required by law without specific language as to how Daly City will address the problems of unpermitted units or construction. But at some point, specific language regarding such a program will be required for approval by the State and many residents remain wary that the resale inspection program may yet again reappear.
Contact Bruce Balshone at bruce.examiner@gmail.com
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