We Built A House In Ohio, Contractors Messed Up The Driveway, And The City Failed Our Final Grading Inspection

My husband and I built a house in Ohio with a builder that puts all of the “site work” (utilities to the house, landscaping, driveway, etc.) on the homeowner. We had a topographic survey done and the city added a diagram to it that showed the driveway flares could be a maximum of 22’ and the driveway could be a maximum of 16’ through the utility easement. Our proposed driveway was supposed to be 16’ wide through the utility easement and then open up to 18’.

We put down a $10k topography deposit that is refundable after passing final grading inspection and up to “six months following issuance of the building occupancy permit” per city ordinance. We got the certificate of occupancy on 4/17 that is conditional upon passing the final grading inspection. We have until 7/17 to pass. I emailed the building department to ask whether the deposit is refundable up to 3 months or 6 months after the CO is issued. I think it should be 6 months but since they only gave us 3 months to pass inspection, we aren’t sure.

We had the driveway installed in April and it passed inspection by the building department. It gets a little complicated here. Originally we were going to use contractor A for the driveway. We sent him the survey which had the city’s requirements on it. Contractor A marked where the curb needed to be cut and we hired a company to cut the curb. Contractor A kept putting us off so we found contractor B to install the driveway. We sent Contractor B the same survey that stated the city’s requirements. Contractor B called me when they were framing it out and told me that the curb was cut a little too wide but he “could make it work.” I know I should have confirmed it wasn’t more than 22’, but I trusted they knew what they were doing. The building department inspected it before they poured the concrete and it passed inspection.

The engineering inspector came out this week to inspect the final grading. We failed for a few reasons, but the biggest reason was because the driveway flares were too wide. My husband and I personally measured and the flares are about 24.5’ wide. I talked to the inspector and he said the building department doesn’t check for that. They only check for depth. He said it’s not the building departments responsibility to measure it. We got quotes for $2000 and $3500 to fix it.

We also failed inspection was because the installed driveway wasn’t depicted on the as built survey. So the surveyor added it. But it appears that the driveway begins to widen before the utility easement. Again, my husband and I measured and it’s about 6” too wide at the utility easement. We aren’t sure yet if the engineering department will make an issue of this. If they do, that will be a much bigger project and bigger expense.

Is this worth talking to a lawyer about? Is there any recourse here against anyone involved (contractors or the city)? If we’re out $2k it’s not the end of the world. If it turns into a bigger issue because Contractor B widened it too soon. That would be more expensive to fix and potentially mean losing the $10k deposit.