{"id":7227,"date":"2021-12-15T05:35:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=7227"},"modified":"2021-12-15T05:52:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:52:56","slug":"toms-river-considering-plan-to-require-inspections-prior-to-home-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2021\/12\/toms-river-considering-plan-to-require-inspections-prior-to-home-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Considering Plan to Require Inspections Prior to Home Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"For<\/a>

For Sale\/Sale Pending sign. (Credit: Dan Moyle<\/a>\/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Toms River township council on Tuesday night introduced an ordinance that would require code inspections prior to the transfer of property\u2019s deed, including the sale of a residential home.<\/p>\n

The township currently requires inspections when a homeowner applies for a rental certificate of occupancy, but no municipal inspections are required upon the sale of a property. Such ordinances have proliferated in North Jersey, officials said, leading relocating Toms River residents to expect them locally.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, officials said, the inspections would focus on two items of concern: whether there are any code violations (such as construction completed without a permit) at the property, and whether there are any code issues that could threaten a person\u2019s safety upon purchasing the home. As an example of the latter, Township Engineer Robert Chankalian referenced the death of an 11-year-old girl who was killed two summers ago after touching a boat lift with that produced a severe electric shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps we could have spotted the ground fault and that would not have happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ordinance will likely generate lively debate in Toms River. No fee schedule was announced at Tuesday\u2019s council meeting, however rental inspections \u2013 essentially, the same inspection that will be performed upon a sale \u2013 is $150 per unit. Ultimately, officials said the ordinance is aimed at saving new homeowners both financial and legal problems down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t new permits or new violations,\u201d said Councilwoman Laurie Huryk. \u201cIt\u2019s so buyers don\u2019t get penalized for things they aren\u2019t made aware of. There have been so many buyers who complained to us over the years that they bought a house, there was a shed on the property for ten years, and it happens to be on a wetland and now they\u2019re facing a fine. We have hundreds of buyers being penalized all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue was brought up recently in an even more dire circumstance when new homeowners began receiving notices that their homes had been substantially damaged in Superstorm Sandy and would violate flood codes if not raised at a substantial cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would have gotten a list of all outstanding permits, and that would have been on the list,\u201d said Chankalian. \u201cThe most important part of this is to make the buyers aware.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inspection was defined as one which would be \u201climited\u201d to safety items and code issues. The rental inspection, for example, requires officers to ensure there are smoke and carbon monoxide detectors present in the home, as well as a fire extinguisher, and that appliances and utilities are in a safe condition.<\/p>\n

As for code issues: \u201cOver the years there are a lot of things we\u2019ve seen \u2013 illegal sheds, illegal fences, you name it,\u201d said Chankalian. \u201cAll types of things that the buyer doesn\u2019t know about, and they find themselves getting penalized later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ordinance requires a public hearing and second vote before final passage. Normally, that takes place at the following township council meeting, which is scheduled for Dec. 28 at 5 p.m. at the township municipal complex.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toms River township council on Tuesday night introduced an ordinance that would require code inspections prior to the transfer of property\u2019s deed, including the sale of a residential home. The township currently requires inspections when a homeowner applies for a rental certificate of occupancy, but no municipal inspections are required upon the sale of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1080,362,1445,11],"class_list":["post-7227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-featured","tag-home-inspection","tag-home-sale","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/11932676106_f462645d27_o-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}