I think this is a very tough issue. We chose to live on conservation b/c of the wildlife that we might see. We have lived in our home for over 4 years and I've never seen a 'coon or 'possum in our yard. We did have an armadillo issue for which we hired a trapper to catch and relocate to his acreage (he said that's what he would do and I hope he did). Other then that, I have never had a problem with any animal eating/stealing/destroying anything I have grown. I have a 40-mile roundtrip commute to my office each day. Every day, I see so many poor animals that have been run over. At the rate I am seeing roadkill, I truly question that there are more of them than there are of us. Look at the amount of habitat loss! I also blame some, certainly not all, of the animals that get hit on people not paying attention to the road and/or speeding. One of the main roads leading to where we live is a very dark, narrow, 2-lane road. Because I have seen deer, rabbits, 'coons, etc., I know to drive as slow as I can and pay extra attention to my surroundings. But that is my soapbox for another thread. Personally, I cannot justify killing these animals, unless like Nicki said, it's for food or the animal is suffering. Call me a bleeding heart, but I personally do not think it is right to kill or harm these animals because they eat our veggies. Like Marcia and others have said, my philosophy in my yard is to live and let live. I have enough space and grow enough stuff to be able to share with the wildlife that live around me.

Berniek, from the excerpt you provided, it does not appear as if an agent is required to verify anything said by the seller that they relay to the buyer...I agree it is not clear with regard to the agents responsibility to do so for the seller...but IMO, it would seem to me that if the state does not care if the agent passes on unverified info to the buyer, they certainly would not care if the agent does not take the time to find out if the seller is wrongÂand then correct him/her. Then againÂlaw is always subject to interpretationÂand that is certainly language that should be changed in order to avoid any misunderstandings. linda117: "I know that a title search is doneÂbut as far as I know there is no municipal search performed by the title company in NJÂthat is something that is usually done by the buyerÂs attorney." Be that as it may, by the time the process gets to this point in NJ, the buyer has already spent money on inspections and, considering how many may be needed, this could be in excess of 2K or more Therefore, the point is to find out these issues before the commitment is made and money spent, so a buyer can choose as to whether to proceed with an offerÂor not. There was a lot of understandable angst on the part of the realtors in NJ when this was promulgatedÂas they felt that there was an undue onus put upon them in terms of verifying items that was beyond their expertise. However, on the flip side, NJ has something called the "Entire Controversy Doctrine" which means that if one person is sued, every single person involved in the transaction is named at the same timeÂor else the plaintiff forfeits their right to sue later if it turns out that they were indeed involved. That said, realtors are exempt from being sued in this manner if the info they relay was provide by a licensed professionalÂin this caseÂthe town building department. Consequently, most agents have now come to see this as a benefit to themÂ..a lesser of two evils so to speakÂ.as performing due diligence will eliminate their liability in this issue. One more pointÂ.NJ has five hundred some odd municipalitiesÂ..obtaining this info is generally a quick, easy and painless process, as the span of control is fairly small. To add to that, many towns, such as ours, also require a "construction clearance permit"Âin other words, if one takes out a permit to let's say build a garage as is the case with the house that the OP wishes to buy, Âbut never gets the final, title canÂt change hands without the final. This eliminates a problem for the buyer those sellers who DO have a "permit"Â.but never went further with the rest of the processÂfrom selling the house without all final approvals in place. All of the agents know this, and are required by municipal ordinance to verify the status. Hope this helps.

The others have already said the important stuff about permits, inspections and following the building code, so I'll just add a story: Apparently South Florida is one of those places where there's the law and then there's the way things are done. People retire to South Florida all the time, or just move there because the weather is warm and everything is beautiful. Including this guy, call him Pete Jones, who bought himself a great parcel of land and built himself a house. He'd built houses before up North, so didn't think it would be too big a deal. He built a beautiful house. But then, about a year later, Hurricane Andrew huffed and puffed and blew South Florida down. Pete's house had some damage too. He lost part of his roof, and had a little water damage, but he'd put the plywood over the openings and all of that, and the house was pretty much okay. All of his neighbors' houses, ALL of them, were reduced to rubble. A reporter went to interview Pete to find out what angel had interceded for him. Turns out it wasn't divine providence. Pete was puzzled too. He said he didn't do anything he could regard as special. He just followed the building code.

@Tim Cleary I have to admit, that part of the reasons why I'm reluctant to fill it, is that myself (or future buyer) can have the option to convert it into a underground studio like you said in the future, with part of the "deck" (or ceiling of the studio) being glass.... I have seen something similar in commercial property (like entryway to a subway), but not sure if such thing is realistic in residential...