Hi,
I bought a house which came with a mezzanine in the garage. It has steps leading to the mezzanine, however, the height between the ceiling of the garage and the bottom of the mezzanine is approx. 160cm. The OBC asks for 210cm so basically I'm 50cm short. The city came by and randomly looked at my mezzanine and asked me to apply for a permit, otherwise take it all down.
Is there any way around the minimum OBC requirements?
Thanks!
The only way around these rules and a good Real Estate Lawyer will tell you. You cannot get around them, but depending on the way and the wording is on your recent Real Estate Contract in Ontario as a new purchaser of a home you can go back to the previous owner up to 7 years and re-coop costs for certain items repairs that were not done in accordance to OBC or filed permits if these items or areas of repair were not pointed out to you verbally or written in your Real Estate Contract. If this is the case I would seek legal advise and get 3 Estimates from good contractors and proceed from there.
Good luck!
Thank you for your comment. I will seek legal advice but if there is a way around this issue, I will most likely take it.
The lawyer will cost you more than the removal of stairways.
As long as the city came.....Then you have to adjust it to the building code accordingly or remove it as he advised and yes as Roy said the legal action will definitely will cost you more than fixing the issue and it's long process and not guaranteed.
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