[WSBARP] Payment of Exorbitant Developer Fees

[Paul Neumiller]

Any thoughts or this a typically hopeless cause to be filed under "you can't fight City Hall"?


-----Original Message-----
From: wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Paul Neumiller
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 4:05 PM
To: wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBARP] Payment of Exorbitant Developer Fees

Listmates:  Client Developer queries the appropriateness of (what appears to be) excessively high fees.  Developer seeks permission from City to build house.  City does not have an engineer on staff to review the plans but rather contracts out this work.  There are multiple issues between Developer's representative and the City's contract engineer.  After multiple meetings, the problem is determined to be with the contract engineer (though I doubt he admits this).  But to no avail, the City passes on an exorbitant fee to the Developer for the time/costs of the City's contract engineer (in excess of $8K).  This amount is in addition to the standard building permit fees.  City refuses to issue the building permit until it is "reimbursed" for its engineer contractor.  I don't know if this is an issue but it appears the contract engineer charges a rate above the prevailing market rate, probably because the City doesn't care about the rate because the City just passes the cost onto the unsuspecting public/developer.  Is this typical?  How does Developer fight this, if possible?

I vaguely remember a strategy where Developer pays the bill, gets the building permit, and then sues for reimbursement at a later time (though I don't know on what grounds.)  Thanks ahead of time for your input. Any guidance would be appreciated.  --Paul Neumiller




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