Notice of Noncompliance

[Allan Baker]

I have two signed purchase Agreements, both for five acre properties at $100/acre.
After researching the properties I found that both have no road access. the closest road is about a mile from the properties across us government owned land. The terrain is flat Utah desert land so theoretically one could drive an off road vehicle to the properties.
the real kicker for me is, when I pulled up the APN numbers on the county web site i found recorded “Notice of Noncompliance” from the county on both properties. the notice says;

“…the parcel is a division and/or subdivision of a larger parcel and was not created in compliance with the requirements of the county land and use management and development Code for such divisions. therefore the county cannot verify that the property has services available, is accessible without trespass or issue a building permit for a structure on the property.”

the notice goes on to say that “any further division, subdivision, Sell, Exchange,or transfer of the parcel may be a violation of Utah state Code and County ordinances and punishable as a criminal offense.”

Has any body come across this before and is the property worth pursuing at all. my gut says Hell No, but I thought I would throw it out there and see what the seasoned members have to say about it. I did a little more digging and i t looks like most of the five acre properties in this county have the same recorded notice of non compliance.

Topic

[Jill DeWit]

#9485

Have you called the county to inquire what steps are needed and if that can be rectified? If you are at all curious.

In the meantime, I would “pass” and move on to another deal.

[Allan Baker]

#9490

oh Wow hi Jill.
yes i did call the county. the lady said that the only way to clear the Noncompliance was to buy up all or the majority of the illegal parcels and combine them back to one property again. so yes I have moved on to the next deal. kind of a drag for my first mailer I have three accepted offers now all with the same Noncompliance notice. I am sending out my second mailer this week.
thanks for all that you and jack do for us.

[Mike Marshall]

#11229

I realize that this is an older post but perhaps I can add value for others in similar situations. Most states will have standards that regulate the subdivision of land. There are lots that have been created outside of the subdivision process, often times by metes and bounds descriptions. For example, x number of feet or yards from a survey pin to a point located in x. Most states will have provisions that grandfather these lots if created before a certain date. So even though they were created outside the regulations of the subdivision regulations, the state will recognize them as “legal lots” essentially. In California for example, situations such as this will result in the issuance of a Certificate of Compliance. In the situation above, I would ask the county if there is a similar date that applies. If through deed research you can show that the subject parcel is in the same configuration today as it was prior to the grandfather date you will be in good shape. This is a bit of an advanced issue and I agree that when first starting out this is something to stay clear of if for no other reason that you likely will have many other deals to review that don’t have this issue. Hope that helps!

[Author]

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