condemned/uninhabitable/demolition order properties

[ErnestBidder]

  Readers should beware: take everything that municipal staff tell you with a grain of salt. Some years ago, I wanted to rehab a property with a falling-down (literally!) house, because it was in an area that was going commercial/industrial, and had a very large lot. I talked to the building dept & was told that there was a demo order and the house absolutely could not be rebuilt. An acquaintance bought it for a song 4 months later, rebuilt it, used it for his business premises for 6 years, and sold it for over 20 times the purchase price. When I raised hell with the staff member I had talked to, he said "well, I meant that you couldn't completely tear it down & rebuild it exactly the same, but what he did was renovate it, one 2-storey wall at a time." If I had been wearing a hat, I would have jumped up & down on it; if he had been wearing a hat, I would have wanted to do the same with him in it.