Realtors Bash Toms River Home Sale Certificate Of Occupancy Ordinance

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River realtors are calling for the township to repeal an ordinance that requires a certificate of occupancy for the property before a home sale can go through, calling the ordinance a "money grab" that is costing them sales.

Toms River officials say the ordinance is about one thing: safety.

The issue flared up at the Sept. 14 Township Council meeting, where several realtors and real estate agents expressed frustrations with the ordinance that was passed in December.

The ordinance, which took effect in July, requires a certificate of occupancy be issued for every home that is being sold in Toms River, and requires a list of items that must be met before the certificate is issued.

Councilman Justin Lamb on Tuesday said he plans to introduce an ordinance to repeal the certificate of occupancy requirement, which he called "a money grab."

"The existing ordinance has created bureaucratic red-tape, cumbersome mandates, and costly delays that are undermining our home values," Lamb said in a statement Tuesday. "It's time to begin the repeal process tomorrow night."

The application for a certificate of occupancy includes a fee of $300, which Toms River officials said is based on the cost of the work involved in researching a property to make sure all permits are in placed and closed, along with an inspection. Additional fees are charged if reinspections are needed for a failed inspection.

"Each and every time a home fails inspection, the homeowner gets whacked with additional fees that they never had to pay in the past," Lamb said. "They say it's about safety but it's really just a money grab."

The list of requirements includes things such as having ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets in place near water, including in the laundry room; fences that are structurally sound and maintained, and certification of the furnace or boiler and of a fireplace and chimney certification, to ensure they work properly and are vented correctly.

It also requires that work done on the property have the proper permits in place.

"This ordinance was designed with life safety in mind, and to protect new homebuyers from experiencing significant future expenses after their purchase," Mayor Maurice Hill said.

Township engineer Robert Chankalian said the certificate of occupancy ordinance came into existence in part because of issues that new homeowners were discovering when they bought homes damaged during Superstorm Sandy. Some were notified by letter that their newly purchased homes were supposed to be raised. Others learned their homes had received a substantial damage designation that resulted in requirements being imposed on them as a result — requirements the previous owners knew about.

In cases where work has been done without permits, safety issues have been identified, such as an improperly vented gas fireplace, bedrooms with no windows for people to escape in case of a fire, and electrocution hazards, Chankalian said.

Realtor Kimberly Bell said the issue of permits is disrupting sales.

"Say you need to sell your house, and you have someone who has to close in 45 days and they'll give you an extra $10,000," Bell said. That deal won't happen, she said, because they cannot guarantee closing that quickly.

Bell said she has a seller who bought a home 30 years ago and at the time, the garage had been converted to living space. Because the work had been done prior to the current owner, there were no permits on record. The town is assessing violations and fines to the current owner, and selling the home is on hold, Bell said.

"We don't want to sell problematic houses," she said, "But what happened to buyer beware?"

Marisa Matarazzo, another Toms River realtor, said she didn't understand why instances where work was done years ago, when the permitting process was vastly different and in some cases nonexistent, were not simply grandfathered in.

"Maybe there hasn't been a fire yet, maybe there hasn't been an egress issue yet, maybe there hasn't been, God forbid, another electrocution yet," Chankalian said. "That's what we're trying to catch." Those issues have happened in older homes, he said at the council meeting.

Hill said the priority in the cases of older homes is safety, and senior code officials can tell by methods of construction, matching materials, and sometimes a simple date stamp on certain building materials, whether the work was recent or much older.

"If it is questionable, the staff will err on the side of not requiring a retroactive permit unless they uncover a life safety issue," Hill said. "For instance, if they see a basement renovation that they cannot document whether a permit was pulled or not, and it appears to be similar vintage as the construction of the house, they likely would not require additional action. However, if that basement happens to have a bedroom and they observe that the bedroom doesn't have proper smoke detection or proper egress, those are the type of things that we really want to catch."

The fee for the certificate of occupancy, which Hill and Chankalian acknowledged is higher than in other towns, reflects the time invested in the process. Each property submitted for a certificate of occupancy is researched for open permits and permits that were requested at any time in the property's history, which can require searching in archived records.

"Toms River essentially reviewed the ordinances of neighboring towns to see what others were requiring, but at the same time noted that most do not provide research of open permit files," Hill said. "Since that was something that seemed to be a reoccurring issue with our new residents, we wanted to add that service. Consequently, that does require some additional staff time to locate old files and research them."

The fee is a user fee, Hill said.

Lamb said he has an ordinance ready to go for Wednesday's meeting to repeal the certificate of occupancy requirements until it can be retooled, and said he will push for its introduction. He said the current process has led to "horror stories of overly zealous inspectors, invasive probes, and minor shortcomings that have thwarted home sales."

At the Sept. 14 council meeting, Councilman Matt Lotano said he and other town officials have been meeting with residents and realtors to smooth out the certificate of occupancy process.

In an email after the meeting, he said the vast majority of the issues have been because of open permits or "illegal and potentially dangerous unpermitted and uninspected work." Bedrooms without egress are a particular concern, he said.

"I have received some good suggestions and this administration is 100 percent prepared to implement these suggestions and make the necessary changes," Lotano said. "The CCO ordinance is a tool to protect Toms River’s future."