more on the Hofgards: "As aging DC. rowhouses are renovated, scores of alleged construction, permit problems"

Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira has produced another article today on the Hofgard developers.

Click on the link to read the entire Washington Post article.

Not surprising to read about pop-backs with zoning issues. 

Again, there are some Hofgard-renovated residences in Bloomingdale.

Local

As aging D.C. rowhouses are renovated, scores of alleged construction, permit problems

By Ian Shapira May 8 at 10:00 AM

When Patricia Simon and T.J. Snowhite bought a renovated condominium in Northwest Washington 16 months ago, the couple thought the place had just the right touches. The master bedroom had a skylight. The building boasted a parking spot. And the condo’s rear addition, known as a “pop-back,” had two bedrooms, perfect for visitors.

    

But after 10 days of living in their new $765,000 home in Columbia Heights, water began leaking through a bedroom ceiling, leaving stains. Closer inspections, the couple said, revealed more problems: The master bedroom’s ceiling didn’t have enough support and was vulnerable to a collapse during a snowstorm. The parking space was too small, and it violates city regulations. And the building’s pop-back was built without the required special approval from the District’s zoning regulators.

Eventually, Simon, 39, and Snowhite, 30, a software engineer for a major defense contractor, realized something else: They were not the only aggrieved homeowners who’d bought a property from a developer named Insun Hofgard.

On Thursday, Hofgard, 53, and her husband, Jefferson Hofgard, a 56-year-old Boeing executive, were sued by the city’s attorney general for allegedly violating the city’s construction codes and consumer protection law.

In the lawsuit, filed in D.C. Superior Court, Attorney General Karl A. Racine accuses the developers of misleading Simon, Snowhite and other home buyers into purchasing at least 15 properties that violate city construction codes, contain substandard materials and had inadequate inspections. The complaint seeks restitution on behalf of the homeowners and to bar the Hofgards from selling homes that don’t comply with city zoning laws and construction codes.  

...