Park County Homes with no CO - Certificate of Occupancy

If you are thinking about buying a home in Park County or have recently purchased one please be careful. Do not rely on Realtors. There are some bad ones out there, and there are some really amazing ones. DORA advised me that Realtors do not have to verify anything before listing a home. Contact the county your self to make sure everything is ok. Well permit, Septic, and CO.

The Park County building department advised me that there are a lot of homes in Park County that do not have a Certificate of Occupancy - CO on them. They claim they have no way to follow up on this matter because they do not have the resources.

Homes in the county have been foreclosed on because of this, and it will continue to happen. You are not suppose to be able to obtain a Conventional or FHA loan on a home with no CO. The Seller's are suppose to disclose it but aren't at least in our case.

Before you say Im lying. Ask your self this. What gain would I have from lying about this? Nothing.

It is ultimately up to the lender if they want to foreclose, and they can if they choose to do so. Will your lender do it, I don't know.

A certificate of occupancy is a document issued by a local government agency or building department certifying a building's compliance with applicable building codes and other laws, and indicating it to be in a condition suitable for occupancy. Our house never had one.

The lender is at risk for default without a CO, which is why it is hard to find a lender willing to issue a loan with even a temporary Certificate of Occupancy. That is why we can be foreclosed on. There is a Decrease in the home’s value, leaving us upside down on our home in our current loan since the home never reached its designated value due to not passing inspection. However the assessor is taxing the home as if it were complete and not as vacant land but as improved.

Conventional and FHA loans do not lend on a home with no CO or even a TCO (Temporary Certificate of Occupancy). The FHA rehab loan (203k) is intended to help borrowers buy and repair fixer-uppers in all-in-one transactions, is only allowed on properties that were originally issued a certificate of occupancy. Our home never had a CO so it would not have qualified for this.

There are at least 7 known code violations for the home including structural issues and we are looking at $25,000 or more in repairs.

Both realtors involved missed this, the home inspector, the lender, and the title company. The title company stated they do not search for a Certificate of Occupancy (CO). Home inspector came back out and said I will give you your money back if you sign this release. Our realtor said you would just assume a 12 year old home would have a Certificate of Occupancy (CO).

The sellers of our home clearly knew about this and hid it from everyone involved. They left all the proof in the home. The sheriff's office refuse's to file criminal charges as they exist. The DA's office said yes there are criminal charges get the Sheriff's office involved.

A Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO) was issued 7/2006 and expired on 10/2006 with the 7 code vioaltions. In December of 2006 they did a warranty deed putting the home into their children’s name. March of 2007 the seller’s filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Did not disclose the transfer of this home in the bankruptcy, because it would have been seized to pay their assets. They owned this house free and clear. 12/2013 another warranty deed was done putting the house back into their names.

Don’t have money for repairs. I am disabled. Who knows what else could be wrong with the house. What if we are in a money pit? Don’t have money for an attorney. Attorneys will not take a contingency and want $325 an hour. Yes we will win a judgment against the sellers, but will we ever be able to collect? That is the question. They are good at playing the system. If it cost $25,000 for the repairs, and another $25,000 for trail and we never see a dime was it worth it? Our situation didn't change.

If we try to sell we have to disclose this and sell the home for less than what we paid for it as a cash deal. We loose money and will be upside down. House prices keep going up and now nothing is in our price range.

What do we do? What would you do?

Thank you.

This totally sucks!!!!!

Maybe you could share your story on the local facebook page and ask for help.

Since you are disabled if you provide the materials maybe some of the wonderful people up here might help with labor.

You probably want to have a list to provide of what type of work needs to be done. Mountain Resource Center might also be able to give you names of people willing to volunteer time.

Just a thought.

I know its terrible position to be in and thank you for the response. I don't use facebook for personal reasons. However my friend made a post on the Bailey/Conifer page for us and it got out of control. People got really nasty saying "why are you lying?". "Im a lender for over 20 years this wouldn't happen". But people were coming forward saying they bought homes in Park County with no CO and had to get a special rehab loan. We don't qualify since our house never had CO. So she wound up deleting the post. Materials cost money that we don't have, as we just bought this house 6 months ago and put every penny we had down on it. The code violations are not cheap. Biggest issue is the stairs are not 6'8" in 4 spots. County will not issue a variance on safety issues. One side is structural/the pitch of the roof. The Deck needs an engineer involved which aren't cheap. Need a 14 inch beam instead of 12, and railings needs to be fixed/brought up to code on the deck. Some other stuff.

Im just wondering how many other people went through this and if there could be a possibility for a class action law suit. We were told someone in our neighborhood just lost their home due to no CO and the house never having any permits. They had a loan and was foreclosed on.

I would check with Mountain Resource Center you never know.

I am curious. You said you purchased the home and it had structural damage. Why did your inspection not reveal these things? It is another side to this that would make me angry, as you are paying them for that very purpose!

I am so sorry that you are going through this. I was a Managing Broker for years. The fact of the matter is All Realtors are required by the NAR to work in the best interest of the Client. Reading your post on zero sleep they have violated at least four. The Realtors Up here do what is in the best interest of their pocketbooks. I fired eight before I found an honest one. I would be happy to help you anyway I can. Do you have the purchase agreement and Home inspection report? The due diligence that you’re responsible for is writing the check. We moved here several years ago, There are many things we can’t tell clients for example Demographics being one. You should have been advised to do a Home Inspection, have your Water tested and possibly the amount of water that it’s producing. If you have a way of messaging on here please do. I believe I can help. My license up here isn’t active due to the many unethical Realtors I have dealt with. I am not saying they are all like that, however from what you posted it seems you stumbled across one of 85% of BS Realtors in our beautiful mountain community. I would love to help you and if DORA doesn’t act I can contact the NAR National Association of Realtors and they will deal DORA who from what I have heard over the years DORA doesn’t do their job and follow up, it’s a giant pass the buck party.

Response to twinkiner: Our home inspection did not reveal any of these code violations because we used a terrible home inspector who was recommended by the listing agent. We contacted a few other inspector's after the fact to take a second look and asked hey how hard would these things have been to be discovered in their inspection. We were all advised a few of these items should have definitely come up as they have been code for a very long time.

Response to LJ: Thank you. I do not feel comfortable releasing that information to anyone. That is also why I have not named any names. I am just here to speak about our terrible situation and bring light to this issue as it is a known problem in this county. Something needs to be done, this is unacceptable that people are loosing their homes. I don't wan't anyone else to have to go through this. It sucks. The people involved know who they are, and know what they did was wrong. Everyone involved Title, Realtors, Inspector, Appraisal, and Mortgage all gained money with this fraudulent home sale. Do you think any one involved offered to help or correct their mistake? Nope. The listing agent walked away with a nice commission check that they shouldn't have. Listing agent and their company politely said to piss off because they did not represent us and to get an attorney. Well again attorney costs money. As far as you stating "The due diligence that you’re responsible for is writing the check" That also depends on who you talk to. I made phone calls to 15 other realtors after the fact. Only 1 out of the 15 said we were responsible for making sure the house had a CO. Well if no one ever brought that up to us, then how are you suppose to know that? The rest of the Realtor's said they search for a Well/Septic/CO either before listing the house or once under contract. It's sad how everything is all over the place.

Updates:

Complaints have been made with DORA, but they are so back logged it isn't really going to help us at all. Between the listing agent and Appraisal DORA says they have an 8-11 month backlog. That's insane. They can't really do much other than impose fines, make someone take classes, etc.

Unfortunately, we have exhausted all resources. We have no choice but to sell, so our house will be getting listed. We can't not afford to do the repairs, we do not qualify for a grant as you have to be over the age of 65. Park County offers the grant, and a loan with a low interest rate. Can't afford the payments on a loan. We have contacted every resource possible. Tom Martino Show, Mountain Resource Center, Habitat for Humanity, FIRC, Good Will, Salvation Army, USDA, FHA, County Commissioner, Senator, every single news station (Not one responded), CAR, RECOLORADO, the list goes on and on. No wonder so many people have all ready lost their homes.

We have contacted the Office of the United States Trustee for Bankruptcy, and the Sheriff's office to file a report for criminal charges. But again these things don't help us stay in our home or fix it. Because of the Fraud we would qualify for a recession of the loan. But that still requires an attorney, going to trial, spending money we don't have. With no guarantees. Im sure the seller's hid that money by now.

The hardest thing to do is knowing when to walk away. It saddens us, but it's time for us to walk away.

Thank you everyone for your responses and suggestions. We truly appreciate it.

If you would prefer to stay in the home, Please let me help you, I reread your post and want you to know Realtors are responsible, home inspectors are to be held accountable if they fail to point out a visible defeat meaning anything not behind a wall. Realtors are by law required to carry Errors and Omissions Insurance for reasons exactly like yours. I am not asking for anyone’s name, I can give you the names of who to call and what you need to say. Was the home New Construction? Than the responsibility lie with the Builder to obtain a CO. Most home buyers are unaware of these things. Rule number one if you’re a Buyers Agent never refer a Home Inspector, Mortgage Broker, Painter or Plumber. Provide at least three names of people, so that the buyer can choose. My husband has built homes for twenty years, he started as a trim Bitch industry word not mine, worked his way to V.P we are both happy to help you stay in your house. Knowing what we went throug, including eight Realtors and hearing your story is devastating to me. I held a Managing Brokers license at a small office that we opened in 2008 not such a great time the Buisness thrived for the simple reason that we only worked in our Clients best interest. We have had offers from KW, Berkshire and Coldwell Banker but decided the work put in to succeed was worth more than selling out our integrity. I am so appalled by what goes on in this market to unsuspecting buyers who put trust in their agent to follow the law, and do their job correctly. I would hate to have this happen again and will.