Home Renovation Pitfalls & Protections: Construction Law Insights with Andy Wyman

In this episode of Jim Sells the Suncoast, Jim sits down with construction law attorney Andy Wyman of Wyman Legal Solutions to discuss the essential steps homeowners should take before (and during) major home renovation projects. From choosing the right contractor to understanding permitting requirements, Andy shares proactive tips and legal best practices that can save homeowners money—and serious headaches—down the road.

Key Highlights

1. Vet Contractors Thoroughly
   • Licensing & Insurance: Confirm proper state licensing for the exact scope of work (e.g., roofing, general contracting). Ensure the contractor carries workers’ compensation to protect you from liability if someone is injured on-site.
   • Online Research: Read reviews, check for complaints or lawsuits, and consider hiring a lawyer to run a background check for extra peace of mind.
   • Red Flags: Poor communication, high-pressure sales, or dismissing the need for a formal contract/permits can signal trouble.
2. Importance of a Solid Contract
   • Scope, Payment, & Timelines: Clearly define the exact work to be done, payment schedule based on milestones, and realistic completion dates.
   • Attorney Review: Investing in a well-drafted contract now can prevent lengthy (and costly) legal battles later.
   • Warranty & Attorney Fees Clauses: Build in provisions that spell out who pays legal fees in the event of a dispute, and clarify what happens if the workmanship or materials fail.
3. Permitting & Code Compliance
   • Pull Permits: Skipping permits can lead to fines, forced tear-outs, and potential disclosure issues when selling your home.
   • Building Inspections: City or county inspections confirm minimum code standards—not workmanship quality. If you want a detailed eye, consider an independent owner’s rep or additional inspectors.
4. Defective Work & Legal Recourse
   • Document Everything: Take photos, keep detailed notes, and save all written communications.
   • Notice & Opportunity to Cure: Florida law often requires giving the contractor a chance to fix defects before you can pursue legal remedies.
   • Limitations & Costs: Suing can be expensive, and general liability insurance typically won’t cover the contractor’s own faulty work—only damage caused by it. Weigh the cost of litigation against potential recovery.
5. Avoiding Disaster with Major Projects
   • Owner’s Representative: For large-scale or out-of-state builds, hiring an owner’s rep can help you oversee timelines, costs, and quality.
   • Hurricane & Storm Repairs: After major storms, the market floods with new and out-of-state contractors—be extra vigilant about credentials to avoid scams.

What’s Next?

Thinking of a renovation, big or small? Protect your time, budget, and sanity by getting the right legal guidance up front. Contact Jim at jim.ahearn@gmail.com or visit Jim Sells the Suncoast. You can also reach Wyman Legal Solutions at

A Personal Note from Jim:

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Transcript

Jim: 0:51

Hey, Suncoast. Welcome. Today. I have Andy Wyman with me. He is with Wyman legal solutions. If you have ever had construction in your house, you've done a remodel, you want to do something big in your house. This is a guy to talk to. We're going to talk today about different things that go on some of the pitfalls, some of the things you can be proactive on and some of the solutions and resources and you can utilize. Andy, welcome. And thank you for joining me.

Andy: 1:14

Absolutely, Jim. It's great to be here.

Jim: 1:16

Absolutely. So I think we all, when we get that new house, we buy a house, we walk in there. The 1st thing we do is, you know what? I want to change all this stuff. I'm going to make it mine. I'm gonna put my stamp on it. That isn't necessarily easy to do. You can do paint pretty simple, but when you start moving walls and you start moving plumbing, you start changing a lot of things You know, we're step one. What do we do?

Andy: 1:40

that's a great point and a great question. Before you engage in a project like that, you really want to have a good understanding of two things. The scope of what you want to do and the budget. And it's important to have that information in hand and know what you want before you even start interviewing contractors or vetting contractors or bringing other people into your home to help you, solidify your vision.

Jim: 2:02

Let's just jump right in. What are some of the common legal issues homeowners face during home renovations or new construction projects?

Andy: 2:10

Yeah. the work that we do and have done for many years has primarily been litigation oriented, right? It means you've been in a lawsuit or you have a dispute that needs to get into court in and around. anything having to do with construction. So often what that means is a problem has developed between an owner and a contractor regarding the quality of the work, what it's costing, how much time it's taking, any of those issues you normally hear about. And when clients come to us in a situation where things have gone incredibly and horribly sideways on them, they've usually made two mistakes at the very beginning of the project. One is a practical issue and one is a legal issue. The practical issue is Homeowners don't know how to hire a good contractor. They don't know what to ask. They don't know how to interview or what they should be looking for when they hire a contractor. There's no criteria they put in place. That's the practical problem. The legal issue then become is they never sign a contract. And that's where I think a lot of homeowners that those are the two biggest decisions and pieces of what will make a successful project and on the legal end of it with the contract. Most of them think, oh if this is what the contractor is giving me, I guess it's probably standard. Just like you would probably advise your clients, the best time to hire a lawyer is before you sign the contract, make sure that, it's

Jim: 3:26

yeah,

Andy: 3:27

right. Make sure that you've, has everything in it that you're expecting and that you want same thing with a construction project. You have to get a lawyer to help you sign a contract that protects you.

Jim: 3:37

And I think, you know what, you're 100 percent right. And I can speak from experience. I did a remodel. When we spend a lot of money, a little bit of money to have the lawyer look at the contract or even write the contract for me up front would have been well worth it rather than the anguish and potential money outlay that we did do.

Andy: 3:54

Not necessarily. And it's really sad. some of the circumstances people get themselves into when they don't properly vet a contractor in the 1st place. They were the only one to follow through and give you an estimate, or, my brother used this guy and he did a good job there. There's so much more that goes into it. If it's a wrong decision, you have the wrong person, it can result in years of just heartache and lost money and it could literally, I've had people who didn't even want to live in their house anymore after it was all done because it's a constant reminder of, mistakes that were made and how they were wronged by a contractor.

Jim: 4:29

Sure. And the solution isn't as simple as, Hey, let me repaint the wall. There's a lot that can be moved, dealt with in there.

Andy: 4:36

Absolutely. And, 1 of the most important things and, when you is you need to understand whether or not what you intend to do requires a permit. That's 1 of the basic kind of things. And I always recommend to homeowners, Okay. Avoid those contractors who tell you, you don't need a permit when you really do. Okay. Maybe it won't, but regardless as a homeowner, and this as well as certainly as a realtor, if you've done work at your house without a permit, you have an obligation to disclose that to whoever's going to buy it. Next. That's something that's material because it's always a code violation to do work without a permit when you need to have a permit and that code violation travels with the property. you can buy a home that had unpermitted work. done by the prior owner and if the city, the county, if they want to make a big deal out of it, when the music stops and you're without a chair, they can make you go through some incredibly expensive and destructive exercises to fix that.

Jim: 5:30

Sure. Let's actually dig into that a little bit. Cause that's something I run into, I had a house I was talking about with the buyer and they were talking about the roof. Oh we did a new roof. Where's the permit on the roof. The city may come in and say, listen there's no permit. This isn't the code to your point. We're going to charge you all of the fees that go along with that. And you have to bring it up to code. And you thought you were getting a good deal.

Andy: 5:52

Yeah, it's definitely very much, but there's a lot of questions to ask. And when you're buying a house that they claim they've done work. Absolutely.

Jim: 6:00

So what considerations should we take into mind when we're selecting a contractor? What are the things that you would look at or you would advise, Hey, here's what we need to look at. And this is the bare minimum they should be bringing.

Andy: 6:11

Oh yeah, absolutely. There's legally speaking, right? You want to make sure you've got somebody who is licensed and insured. That's some of the basics and not all the work you're going to do in your house requires a, general contractor or certain other of the really high profile licenses to state of Florida issues. But you want to make sure that for the work you intend to get done, that you have people who are licensed and that they are insured, you want to make sure they have workers compensation insurance in case one of their employees gets hurt while at your house. If they don't, you're going to be on the hook for an injury to one of. One of the contractors employees, you want to make sure that the company is in good standing with the state of Florida. And here's the thing. A lot of people don't know licenses in the state of Florida are given to individual people for a company to do construction contracting under somebody's license. That person needs to what's called qualify the company. They make an application to the state so that license allows this company to do work. there's a lot of people out there who don't do this the right way, a lot of contractors and they're technically contractors without a license. There's an individual there who I would want to know the background of, criminal background, bankruptcy, lawsuit history of the company and the individual. And everything I'm describing to you is all information that can be found online if you know where to look and then pay attention to online reviews. when we see these situations where there's contractors spiraling out of control and they're taking money on one job to satisfy another job, and they're starting to lose financial control of their business. Generally, you will see there's a leading indicator of a bunch of bad. Google reviews online about people who got caught caught in that. So that's another thing to look for. And, one of the services we provided our firm to owners is we vet these contractors for you. We will put them through, we know where to find all the information I just described. And for 500, we charge people, we give them a report of all of these things. So when they tell us who they're hiring, they have now done the due diligence to know that all the big basics are covered, but I also want people not ignore other red flags and their gut when they meet somebody. One thing, the biggest, what's at the heart of all disputes between an owner and a contractor tends to be communication. It tends to be that either expectations are not that right in the first place, or there's Communication styles. Very simply, if your contractor is a poor communicator with you, when he's trying to impress you, right? When he's trying to sell you the job,

Jim: 8:38

right?

Andy: 8:38

Not, he's breaking his promises. He's not showing up when he said he would, or it's the simple, Hey, I'm going to be there. I know we have an appointment at five o'clock. I'm going to be more like five 30. I'll see you as a heads up. That's all you can expect from a professional if that's going to be the case. But so many of these Contractors, they don't do that. They have the homeowner waiting till 536 o'clock and then they just show up an hour late nothing's wrong. Like that's an indication of the way the person runs their business. You don't want to be any part of that as the individual you're entrusting your biggest asset and most important asset to, so that's, if

Jim: 9:14

they're trying to oppress you and it's not impressive. That's probably the best you're going to see out of them.

Andy: 9:20

Exactly. And, avoid, people who give you high pressure sales tactics in your home. That's a difficult thing as well. when the contractors, are operating with a contract and you should always operate with a contract, if they don't, and they say, we don't need one. That's a red flag. Or if they give you one and it looks like something your 10 year old put together, like the margins are off. The fonts are different. Paragraphs aren't numbered the right way. Misspellings I'm a big believer in how you do. Anything is how you do everything. If that's the sort of attention that they're giving to this contract that tells you they don't find it to be an important document important enough to have it professionally prepared. And that should tell you that they likewise don't Really, honor their legal commitments. So these are all things that you can observe with your own eyes and, be, just be, real careful about who you let into your house to, to do work.

Jim: 10:13

That's great.

Andy: 10:14

Yeah, we covered that a little bit. So those are the big things. you also want to ask them for references, people they can talk to whose work they had successful projects with. Now, you're going to get the people who were of the best results but there are things that you can ask these references other than, hey, how do you like your. Project, you want to understand what the preferred method of communication was for this contractor, was there someone dedicated to like at an office somewhere you can make a call to, if there was an issue, was there supervision where the people at, they sent to your home, were they, were they able to be able to communicate with them? Did they speak English? A lot of times they don't, and that's okay, but you need to have someone there who you can communicate with as the owner in case something pops up. Protect your property. Did they cover your floors while they were working on the kitchen or the bathroom or drywall or whatever it is? Did they respect your rules? did they leave trash lying around your yard? And now your homeowners association is mad at you. Like these kinds of things that most people won't, think to ask is are all great questions. So you can get an understanding of day to day. Is this going to be someone you can work with?

Jim: 11:19

okay. If there was a mistake made, did they, how did they correct it? And what was the communication and how difficult was it to get it corrected?

Andy: 11:27

that's a great point That says a lot about the type of person you're hiring for sure.

Jim: 11:31

Yeah, absolutely. Mistakes can happen and they're going to happen, but did we correct it? And did we own up to it or did you bury it and you find it as you're cleaning up afterwards? Yes. So how can homeowners decipher and understand construction contracts? The smart way, and I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not reading that stuff, have somebody who's an expert in that field, go through and tell you, Hey, this is what this clause means. This is what this paragraph is talking about, but are there some basic things to that? We, as a potential purchaser of their service.

Andy: 12:03

Sure. So you, some of the basics in a construction contract are going to be the scope of work, a payment schedule, and hopefully some kind of timeframe within which the builder is going to finish or the contractor is going to complete their work. Lots of contractors don't like to commit to that. They don't like to commit to a specific date and I'll get calls from clients that says that'll say he told me. they would be done in six weeks. And here it is, nine months later. So if something is not in, if you're, you have an expectation that is not put into your contract you don't, you shouldn't have that expectation that you're going to get it or that you can enforce it. And when it comes to the scope of work, you make sure it's very, it has to be specific. It's got to be thorough so that, when it tells you for this price, you're getting these things. If there's things in there that you're expecting to be included, but they're not on the list, they won't be included and it's going to cost you extra. And there are contract, look, a lot of contractors are very good people and they mean but there are contractors out there. don't mean well, and they will not include everything in the price. They give you the fixed price. They give you because that they able to come in as the lowest bidder, you're more likely to hire them. And then they hit you with all these things that weren't included. That's really important. And then on payments really you don't want to pay too much upfront. You want to hold as much money towards the end of the job as possible. I think something that's fair is If the payments are in a bell curve, right? If your first payment is 20%, your last payment should be 20%, and there should be certain milestones that when they're hit, right? That's when this money will be released. And that's when this payment will be made. But under, especially if there's work being done with a permit, you want to make sure your last payment is not due until the contractor has passed all final inspections. Lots of contracts will say that payment is due when the work is complete. I don't know what that means. I'm a lawyer and I don't know what it means. I can tell you five different things, complete means and you can litigate that phrase for months and months

Jim: 14:09

everybody's got their own definition. And so nobody's agreeing on any of it,

Andy: 14:14

right? So you want to make sure it's crystal clear when it is that your contractor has earned his payments under the contract.

Jim: 14:19

Then that leads into what legal recourses does a homeowner have if a contractor fails to meet their agreed upon timelines or quality standards?

Andy: 14:27

Yeah, that's where things get tricky. And that's why it's so important to properly vet the contractor and get a good contract because, your rights at that point will depend on what's written into your contract. if you don't have a well drafted contract that protects you, which is also fair to both sides. When things don't go as planned, you're not going to have near the legal rights you think you do. I'm going to give you an example. So one thing in the state of Florida, everybody is responsible for their own attorney's fees. This is a good point, right? So except in one circumstance where if you have a contract with somebody. And the other side breaches it and you have to go to court, you can put in the contract that the prevailing part prevailing in that litigation could get their fees awarded against the other side. If you don't have a cause like that in your contract, and you have to take your contractor to court over 50, 000, let's say, you're going to spend 50, 000 in legal fees fighting a 50, 000 problem happens. All the time, right? when that comes across my desk, I have to give you that advice. I know that, you've been damaged your 50, 000, let's say it's really not going to be worth it for you to go after it. Now there are things we do to help people try to make good of a bad situation without going into the court system. it's different. There's only just a few tools available to me as a lawyer without going into the court system, and the court system is slow, and it's costly, and there's no guarantees in the legal system whatsoever. And the lawyers who do this work, we're not the billboard lawyers that, hey, No recovery, no fee. this is hourly rate lawyers and it is expensive. So you really don't want to have to be there if you can at all avoid it, which is, where hiring the right contractor is just right.

Jim: 16:13

That's the importance of vetting up front. they know you're not going to spend 55, 000 to get 50 back.

Andy: 16:19

That's right. And you know what, contractors don't like hiring lawyers either. No, nobody does, but they don't want to go into court either. It's a tough, I have to have a lot of tough conversations with people about what's worth it and what's not. And there's a lot of emotions involved, as it's, Oh, absolutely. So they, it's a lot of hey, this is not my fault. That this happened to me. It's suddenly that it becomes your responsibility to, do what you need to do to get control back over your home and your life and your project, whether it's your fault or not, it's the situation you're in. And that's so we try to focus on helping people get from there. through the end of their project, sometimes that involves getting some compensation back from the contractor. It's a very different conversation if you, we actually have to go into litigation. It's different fee structures. It's, it becomes an entirely different ballgame if you have to go to court and court will never make your contractor come back and finish that'll only award money. So you have to fire the guy, hire somebody new who's probably going to charge you quite a bit more to. Yeah. Redo the bad work the first guy did and finish the scope of work. And so it's it's a bad situation to be in.

Jim: 17:19

It's a lot about being proactive and vetting upfront. That sounds like a lot of work and sounds like a lot of money, but the potential savings is huge.

Andy: 17:27

Yeah. At the very least, the vetting, we charge$500 to do it. It's such a great investment for people, to at least, eliminate the bad contractors that are out there.

Jim: 17:37

What steps can a home homeowner take to document and report construction defects or substandard workmanship?

Andy: 17:43

Yeah, so on the defects in the workmanship, you're gonna want to take pictures. Lots of times, we actually find this in even the new homes that are built by, some of the larger home builders who are putting up the big communities around the state where, they've tried the homeowner has certain defects. And they're just not getting anywhere under the warranty department and some of these homebuilders and they come to us for help. lots of times we need to bring in an outside expert, whether it's for windows or for flooring or whatever the air conditioning, whatever the problem might be, and to give an opinion as to what needs to be done for it to get fixed properly. Because what will happen is most of those homebuilders. When you make that complaint to them, they're calling the subcontractor who messed up, bringing them out to the house, who is trying to find the quickest, cheapest way to

Jim: 18:31

keep

Andy: 18:32

Mold is a perfect example. There's a right way to remediate mold and there's a wrong way. And lots of contractors who cause mold don't like to. Remediate it the right way because it's expensive. And so they'll say, oh, it's okay. If we just do this when in fact, that's not okay. And so you want someone advising you as the homeowner of the right way to fix the problems that you're seeing and whether you have to fix it yourself or whether your builder has taken it upon them to fix it for you, you should want a third person, a professional telling you, yes, you should accept this. No, you should not. Or here's the right way to fix it. That way you can know it's fixed. for good. But certainly, pictures, video, all of that. And don't just go and fix it and then try to go back after the contractor. Because if you do that, your contractor, if he has a good lawyer is going to say you didn't even give us an opportunity to fix the effect or see it so that we can defend ourselves. How do we know this was really defective? You ruined the evidence. And Florida has a specific process you need to go through before you could ever file a lawsuit about a defect that requires a notice and an opportunity to cure to the builder. As long as the defect is after all the work is complete. And if you go ahead and just fix it on your own and you don't give them that official correct notice, then you're shooting yourself in the foot legally speaking.

Jim: 19:53

Wow. And you're thinking, Hey, I'm just going to take care of it because it'll be a quick, easy fix. They'll pay me back. That's not the case. No,

Andy: 20:00

no, definitely not.

Jim: 20:03

Does homeowner's insurance typically cover any kind of damage or defect or it's really going to go back to what you have with that contractor?

Andy: 20:11

That's a great question. Homeowner's insurance generally will not cover defective construction. Not only that, A contractor's insurance will not cover their defective construction either. This is what a lot of people don't know about the insurance that these contractors carry. So here's a perfect example. You've hired someone to replace your roof. In the course of replacing, it leaks. It damages your drywall, your baseboards, your flooring, your ceiling, all that, right? Their insurance, and let's say you, you have to get all that fixed. And you need a whole roof redone because they just did it poorly. The contractor's insurance will cover the damage to the baseboard and the walls and the floor, et cetera, but will not cover the cost to put a new roof on. And the reason that is the case is because they, the state, these insurance companies, they don't want the builders to, they want the builders to do the, and the contractors to do the best job they can. They don't want to just flop something together and say I've got insurance to redo this and I did it. Like garbage and goodbye. So the, their insurance doesn't cover their work. It covers the damage caused by their work. so there's a distinction there that a lot of people don't realize. So when you have a contractor who just does bad work and he, or he disappears on you with some of your money, none of that is insurable. None, there's no insurance company to go after. That's what makes recovery so difficult for homeowners in these situations, because. I'm like a car accident. There's usually someone with insurance or there's insurance. That's that their insurance generally won't apply to those situations that I just described. And that's where people don't understand.

Jim: 21:47

Is there anything that the homeowner can do then to go back after that? Or what are the next steps?

Andy: 21:52

Really what we're describing now is essentially a breach of contract where the first contractor, you've paid them 40, 000 to do your roof. It wasn't done correctly or whatever the reason is. And you have an opinion that tells you need to have it redone. Before you do that, you have to give that notice to the first builder. And an opportunity to cure it. They don't take care of it. Let's say now you hire someone else. And now you have to pay this new person 60, 000. So now you've now paid 100, 000 for a roof that you should have got for 40. You have 60, 000 of damages. And now you have to. Run after this contractor to try to get it right and through the court system or some other ways, we can put pressure on these contractors to try to, do the right thing and not be dragged through court. But, some of these contractors, you could drag them through court and win and get an award and they just bankrupt the company. And you're left with a piece of paper that isn't worth the paper it's printed on and so it's it's really difficult to be made whole if that's if this has happened to you with a contractor, And yeah, and especially if you're doing a big, here's a great example. If you're doing a big project, if you're doing a renovation that is half a million or more, or you're building a custom home there's a person or a role called an owner's representative, and this would be somebody you as an owner would hire to be your eyes and ears and deal with your builder and make sure the construction's moving along the way it should, that When the contractor says, I'm ready for this next payment, it's, it should be, it should, it's actually validating. Yeah, they're validating it. They become your, they're dealing with your builder for you. And it's again, unless you're doing a project of a half a million or more or millions or multi millions of dollars, probably not worth it You live out of state and you're building a home down here and you've got nobody watching your contractor. These are the types of, or people who are, maybe they've bought a 20 million home and they're just, they're used to delegating these kinds of things to professionals. Those that the owner's rep is such a valuable position and underutilized by homeowners in projects. I have a separate company from my law firm. It's a construction advisory company where we provide those services to homeowners who might need them. It's super important to have someone like that, who knows what they're talking about.

Jim: 24:09

And I think that goes to what we said before that it might be expensive, but when you look at the percentage of the project, it's really not that much

Andy: 24:17

and it's always less expensive than having to dig yourself out of a project that's gone badly.

Jim: 24:24

So let me ask you a side question from what we were just talking about. We had these hurricanes. We had a lot of damage, a lot of roofs. That might be something that, hey, I need to talk to Andy because This guy's coming out to repair my roof. I want to make sure I'm covered because there were a lot of scams. There was a lot of fraud. And of course you want it fixed before the next rain. So you're walking that tight rope.

Andy: 24:44

And that's obviously very stressful for all, different kinds of reasons for the homeowner, particularly, you're having to fight your insurance company to get the money, you finally get it. It's different when you get hit by a storm because this is totally unexpected. Lots of people don't understand their homeowner's insurance coverage. They don't understand that they have a bigger deductible when a hurricane hits maybe. And now they're out to have to come out of pocket 000. They didn't realize it was going to be necessary. And now they, they hand their money off to a contractor who may not be licensed, may not be, ethical contractors, good ones are hard to come by during periods of hurricane. Oh, sure. And there are people who come in from out of state. And I don't want to say that they're all bad because they're not, and our state could use the influx of qualified good. Labor and contractors in, in, in periods like this. But it's very much buyer beware. And, you're feeling the pressure of the situation. You're probably not living in your home at the moment. You're with your wife's parents, you and your kids and your dog. And it's 10 people under one roof. and it tends to, encourage people to make bad decisions or quick decisions or decisions without really, trusting, but not verifying. And so it's even more

Jim: 25:54

important to do due diligence.

Andy: 25:56

Absolutely.

Jim: 25:57

Yeah. What kind of time limits or statutes of limitations do we have with Defect claims or something that went wrong.

Andy: 26:04

Yeah. In Florida a breach of contract has a 5 year statute of limitations. But when it comes to defects, you've got 4 years to make a claim that arises out of a construction defect. 4 years from when you knew or should have known about it. So some defects are apparent from As soon as your construction is done, some of them are not because some of them they're behind walls or they're in, under roofs. So it's from 4 years from whenever you knew or should have known about it to a maximum of 7 years. So you might find a defect in year 6. You've now got just a year left to bring that claim. You don't have 4 years from that. point. That actually is a statute that was recently revised last year. It used to be 10 years. Now it's seven years.

Jim: 26:48

Okay. Last question here today. How can homeowners ensure compliance with building codes and zoning regulations? Obviously, you're going to want to rely on that contractor, which some of that's going to go back to do your due diligence, make sure that they're vetted, they're approved, they're licensed with the state, and they know what they're talking about.

Andy: 27:06

Yes, so zoning and permitting are 2 things that are generally, will always fall back onto the homeowner zone. Zoning is especially you need to understand before you sign a contract with a contractor, whether what you're contemplating building is within the use of the property. That's the first thing you should be always checking. can you do what you want to do on this piece of property? and then there's things the contractor should know about things like setback requirements, not building too close to a property line, those kinds of things. But when it comes to permits to make sure you're meeting building code, that's really what the building inspectors do for the city. And the county, when you pull a permit, they come out and all they're inspecting is that. Does this meet code? It's a minimum standard. Obviously, it's important, but it is only a minimum standard. So they will let work pass. That looks really bad and sloppy because they're not there to check to see that it's nice and pretty. They're there to make sure. That the nails are spaced the way they're supposed to be spaced.

Jim: 28:06

work the way it's supposed to work?

Andy: 28:08

Is it to code? That's all they care. Is it to code? Exactly. Is it to code? That's all they check on. So that's really what the building, which is why it's really important to pull permits because if you don't, then there's no one making, doing that. Check to quality check, if you will so I'd even say that, there are people who would take out construction loans, right? To pay for construction. And these construction lenders generally have an inspector that works for the bank who, before they will release money on a draw, they come out and lay eyes on things, but they are not, they're not there to make sure things are meeting code. They're just saying they're just there to say, okay, he's asking for a payment because the drywall is in Okay. The drywall is in. Okay, you can have your payment. So they're not super helpful for you either with your money that you're borrowing from the bank. That's where that owner's representative can be really helpful to a homeowner who doesn't know what they're, frankly, what they're looking at.

Jim: 29:01

Is there any paperwork that the homeowner has that could help them? Obviously a survey, when they bought the house, if they have a survey, it would show setbacks or any kind of easement that's going through there that you don't want to impact.

Andy: 29:12

I think it's important. I think every homeowner should have a copy of their plans for their home. Not all of them do. And I know when I bought my house 11 years ago, it didn't come with a set of plans. And so I have, since then I've just gone to the building department and asked for copies. They email it to you. But yeah, because you wanna know, you don't know where the load bearing walls are. and if you have a contractor that you're hiring who you're gonna look to remove a wall or half a wall or whatever it is, you want to know where the pipes are running so someone doesn't stick a nail through it. It's just some of the basic things that could, avoid problems. To me, that's the day,

Jim: 29:45

you're still going to wind up paying for it.

Andy: 29:48

Absolutely.

Jim: 29:50

Andy, thank you so much. I appreciate it, man. I'd love to have you come back and do a part two, but I think it's important that as we're going in, it's not just as simple as. You know what? I'm going to tear down this wall because I watched the Property Brothers. Let's take the steps and go through and do it right.

Andy: 30:04

don't just take the sledgehammer and start knocking cabinets off your wall. So yeah, I would love to come back and do a part two with you, should any of your listeners need help on any of this stuff, we're in Boca Raton, but we work. throughout the entire state. 561 361 8700. It's our phone number. It's the best way to get to us or our website, weimanlegalsolutions. com. We have a lot of great resources on there, videos blog posts the ability to get certain free reports and, all that kind of stuff that could really help you. the red flags we were talking about, we have a free report on that. The five mistakes homeowners make, when going into a construction project, and then we have a whole bunch of free videos and stuff that are really helpful.

Jim: 30:42

Fantastic. I'll make sure all that's in the show notes too. And again, thank you, Andy. I really appreciate it.

Andy: 30:46

Yeah, Jim, this was great.

Jim: 30:48

Thank you.