There's not enough information here to go on... what exactly is the city inspecting? The well or septic? Or are they looking for a termite infestation? Or are they measuring the square footage of the home? Or are they just inspecting the title and not the actual house?

If the city puts a lien on the title they can legally hold up the sale, but they have to have a legal reason to put a lien on in the first place. Maybe they want people to pay their water and trash bills? I doubt that kind of thing would hold up in a state court, but in a municipal or county courtroom they might disappoint you.

The last inspector from my city I let in my house was fascinated with the water drinking bowl I have for my cat. He barely looked at the work I had a contractor do, which was the supposedly real reason he was there.

I would get legal advice from the county/state. Sounds like someone is trying to get money for no legal reason. Who is going to inspect what, and how are licensed, certified, and qualified. It sounds like someone is already making ""inspections"", which I am sorry to say is typical in many cities, large and small through out the states.
BUT, they still have to obey federal regulations. Find out who are your inspectors (building etc), who appoints them, who they answer to, how much they get paid--public records--and don't be surprised to see if they are related. Yes it does happen many times--Uncle---appoints nephew, who cannot hold a job, drinks etc---who hires cousin----etc.
Sometime the only way to clean this mess up is to get an GOOD outside investigative reporter, with a big newspaper/TV etc.
My relative is retired inspector for a large county in a western state and he worked under very strict rules and regs. But his friend was in charge of the building dept in a smaller city and some of his employees, that he later fired were used to receiving all sorts of gifts and privileges for working there.
Form a group, investigate, get legal advice and DO NOT be afraid to get the state DA involved.
JUST BE CAREFUL

That's what city's are doing to raise money "The Fee", from street light repair to storm water fee, It's just another way to get into peoples pockets without letting the public vote for or against a tax increase.

mfbenson, This is exactly my question. No one here knows what this is all about. The letter was vague. There is no info on the town website except to say that every house must have a sellers inspection certificate before selling. This is a town bordering a large city and part of a huge metropolitan area. There are no wells. No septic tanks either. I've never heard of termites in this area but nearly all the houses in this town are made of brick or Lannon stone and I don't think the town would care if someone's house got termite damage. They don't need to measure the square footage of houses as that is already known. All the titles are on file at city hall so this is not for someone to knock on doors to inspect the paperwork in people's desk drawers. They are to come and inspect the actual physical house. As for what they are looking for, no one knows yet. They have not given out any more info.

We do not get billed separate for trash collection. Out water supply comes from the next city over and they send each home owner a bill to charge for both incoming fresh water and outgoing sewage water to their treatment plant. This is not part of the current inspection program already in place to check a hired contractor's work. We already have that in place in this town. Plus two part time town workers who do nothing but drive around everyday to write people up for property violations such as "grass growing too long", rust on gutters, peeling paint, missing numerals on garages, leaving a half inch of snow on the sidewalk for "more than 12 hours after a snowfall" ect. This whole thing is not making any sense to me or my neighbors. My question is, can they hold up a sale of a home?

+++++++

mariend, What you are saying is something a few neighbors have already talked about doing. They are talking about getting a lawyer and doing a class action suit. At this point it is all just big talk with these guys. This new "inspection" program is so secretive right now that no info is forthcoming from city hall. Just this vague notice that went out to everybody. I understand what you say about checking out the policy makers and asking questions, but at town meetings when questions about where the tax money is going and who makes these decisions are raised they often refuse to answer or give evasive, incomplete answers not answering the actual questions. They are a creepy, cliquish bunch and many here are afraid to voice opinions at meeting for fear of retaliation. I do know what you mean by 'be careful'. Really, I do.

bcrnick, I understand what you say about charging fees rather than raising taxes and it would be understandable if our town was not already the highest taxed in the entire state. OR we got some decent services like regular snowplowing of the alleys and roads in the winter or a city park for kids to play in and things like that. The town I live in has been teetering on backruptcy for decades and people are wondering where all the money collected is going since it obviously is not going for streetlight and sidewalk repair. One of the reasons neighbors are so upset is that the town is soooo strict about giving out fines for the slightest infraction of property violations (eg. a gargage door that was crooked and did not close completley and properly) yet, our alleys are crumbling to gravel and there are streetlights out all over and even a BUSY intersection that has had the traffic lights broke for going on three years now because they say there is "no money" to repair them. For a long time, all day and all night, I constantly heard the deathly screeching cars braking to a halt at the nearby 6-point intersection. It's gotten better because now no one who is familiar with the area ever takes that road anymore for fear of their lives.

Something is not right about all of this. I could bore you all with tales of local governement corruption here, both procecuted and publicized and also a lot of suspected issues but I won't.

I am just seeking info here at GW, if anyone has been through something similar in your town and how it was handled.

Are these Certificates of Occupancy, by chance? Does your community currently have COs? Where do you live?

/tricia

triciae, I do not know if these are considered Certificates of Occupancy as that is not the name that they are being refered to. I was under the impression that a Certificate of Occupancy is required before any new building can be occupied, or before an existing building can be used for a new purpose. Wouldn't these things have been in place when the homes were built? This is an older town. It is already completely built up. The only reason there has been any new construction in the area is that a tiny strip of land was cleared of homes, (it was forced) to expand the expressway and then the "plans were changed" so the land was rebuilt with condos. Why after a hundred years would this certification suddenly be needed?

But I am glad you brought this COA thing up. I Googled the term and found at least one city in the US that requires renewable COAs for homes. I am going to do more research on this COA term. My fear is that this new program is going to be used to harass people not part of the small town clique and the newer ethic families that have moved to the area thst the 'old timers' seem to fear and resent. And of course there is the other question of where is this $100 dollar fee going?

What agency (Building, Zoning, Prop Appraiser, Law Enforcement,etc) in your town's government is going to do the inspection and what is the criteria for what they are inspecting? I think you need to find this out before doing anything. This sounds like an invasion of privacy, which should be fairly easy to have an injunction issued stopping the inspections. There are many civil rights organizations and attorneys that will take these kinds of cases pro-bono.

I know that meth labs are a big problem in many small towns, could this be an effort by LE to root them out?

"I was under the impression that a Certificate of Occupancy is required before any new building can be occupied, or before an existing building can be used for a new purpose. Wouldn't these things have been in place when the homes were built?"

In some jurisdictions COs are revoked when a property is listed for sale.
This gives the AHJ a shot at inspecting to catch un-permitted work and upgrades and then increase the property tax assessment.
NJ is well known for these shenanigans, but there are plenty of others.

The city we used to live in had a pre-sell inspection required before any house could be sold, which was a total scam. It was a $300 fee for the inspection and if the repairs weren't made by the seller (which were notorious for being things such as requiring an entire bathroom of grout to be REMOVED and replaced if a single spot was slightly different color-wise) the COA was revoked for the new buyer and they had 6 months to complete the repairs before having to pay for a whole slew of inspections themselves to get the COA.

While the REA never actually stated it, we assumed that he had provided "favors" of the green sort to the inspector he'd use, because he would only use that one - to the point that he'd go downtown daily until the inspector he used was being assigned that day.

Good luck on having any sort of clarification on the law... The city (of course) wouldn't put the inspection "guidelines" on the website and the places you were supposed to be able to review them (couldn't have a copy, of course) always either "couldn't find them" or "the person you have to talk to is out".

I'm sure your place will use the same excuse of preventing slumlords and "protecting" buyers, but in the case of our old city with a miserable worldwide reputation, it hasn't helped a thing, other than the bank accounts of the inspectors.