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A curious incident on Broad Street
From Melissa:
We’ve been having bad siding boards replaced on our home’s exterior for the past few weeks. Today something strange happened and I am curious to know if anyone else in CH or the City has experienced something similar.
A young man in casual clothes (and horned rim eyeglasses) rode up on his bike. He was carrying a camera bag. He got off the bike and proceeded to take pictures of our house and only our house. He was also writing notes on some paperwork he was carrying.
My contractor saw this and notified me so I went outside and asked the guy if I could help him with something. He said “no” and told me I had a nice house. He took a few more pictures and biked off. My contractor said he was able to read something like “Present Condition Report” on the guy’s paperwork.
Wondered if anyone has any ideas what this was about? The house hasn’t been sold/purchased in almost 15 years, so this couldn’t be about a comp for a real estate appraisal. Maybe CAR or the City was concerned about our repainting the exterior?
Definitely someone reporting to the CHA about the type of siding you are putting up. Did you contact them before choosing your siding material? I ask because a good friend replaced his siding and received a notice upon completion that he is in violation of the CHA code for exterior siding.
What is this CHA code? Can I get a copy somehow?
Insurance companies will also do exterior inspections. If you are renewing a policy or having a new policy done, then they will do a “drive by”. This just happened to us on a rental I own and had no idea this was a thing. They then told me that I needed to fix some exterior trim and I had to tell them when it’s scheduled. Such a pain!!
FYI, we were replacing wood with wood. Not a composite or vinyl. Only 1 or 2 small boards were replaced on the front of the house. Most of the work done was on the side. Weird.
CHA has and never has had any authority to dictate what siding or paint colors anyone may use.
The Commission of Architural Review handels these issues.
@1 Josh, there is NO Church Hill Association (CHA) code. You are, hopefully, referring to the Commission of Architectural Review, or CAR.
I think if he was working for an agency he would have identified himself. I wonder if he wasn’t participating in some architectural survey? Doing research? IDK. People are so weird.
I sometimes take pictures but I have not in the area lately. If I do, I usually take them from my car through the sunroof. If I get out, I can’t be missed, bald, fat, black guy, with glasses… sometimes I would get out if I need a better picture… but this was not me.
My husband who is a contractor says the same guy has come by on projects he is working on and my husband always goes through CAR. Probablyy just a follow up to ensure you are doing the work according to what was approved. As for the insurance comment I am an agent and you are right any new property policy will always have an inspector come out to take pictures/measurements etc. To make sure that the property policy was written exactly as the property is so the replacement cost is calculate correctly. Proper incurable interest if you will.
@1 Josh, same thing happened on my block of Clay St. where some jerk had all new (non-wood) siding and awful replacement windows installed. House looks like crap, but I guess there’s nothing that can be done even though dude went ahead and did it without approval.
Could it be a VCU student doing some sort of studio project or perhaps a long-term study on CAR-related projects?
JW you can report then to CAR if it wasn’t approved they will have to fix it or have a lien against the house
I believe this person(s) are paid by CAR to document any work being done on the exterior of homes in a historic district. Same thing happened to us when we were doing maintenance on window trim (same color) and when we called in to request administrative approval to change the color of a few Windows which did not match, CAR was already aware of the work being done. No permits were involved.
@17 Dave, the Commission of Architectural Review does not have the funds or manpower to pay anyone to run around taking pictures, believe me. If they were aware of work being done, it was because a citizen reported it. Complaints to CAR are citizen-driven.
@14 JW, totally agree with Meghanne, report them. They rely on citizen complaints to enforce that sort of work.
Whoever said this could be a student, I agree. Could be any number of reasons ranging from an arch. history class to a photography class at any number of places.
I never saw it and I would be very surprised if the City has the resources to conduct follow ups on CAR approved projects. My experience in directing CAR to inspect work that was done without approval was they were understaffed. But yeah overall why not just announce yourself and what group you’re representing?
I seriously doubt it’s anyone that works for CAR. Here’s a possibility: we are in a very active real estate market where many investors are looking to buy properties. This person could be acting as a “bird dog” riding around the neighborhood and taking down addresses and notes on any house that needs work or may be a potential sale. They then send that lead to a investor who will reach out to the homeowner to try to purchase their property.
If this person didn’t identify themselves and acted shady, I wouldn’t be surprised that that’s what they were doing.
I have been known to take pics of some of the houses in the neighborhood and document specific architecture features, but I’m not you know, weird about it. If someone asks me what I’m doing, I always show my research and even offer to share it.
What a weirdo.
Frankly it didn’t occur to us to run our project by CAR for approval. Why do we need to ask for permission/approval to replace rotting wood siding with new wood? Can’t imagine that anyone reported the work to CAR. We replaced bad wood with good wood…period. No color changes. Why is CAR and the City more concerned with people who are renovating houses versus owners who allow their abandoned house to fall into dangerous disrepair? I get that we are in an historic district but why is there is more concern over what kind of siding we’re using versus the abandoned house a few doors down that’s one swift breeze away from imploding?
@22 Melissa. You don’t need CAR approval for “in kind” replacements. If you were making a substantive change to the exterior of your home, you would need approval. Thanks for replacing the bad wood. From what you described, I doubt the gentleman was a representative from CAR.
The city, however, is regularly and routinely in the neighborhood reviewing properties. There are members of code enforcement, permits and inspections, and the assessor’s office that make visits to work sites announced and unannounced.
Thanks David!