Union City Building Department

"I do wish I can give the building department a negative review. I've sold a number of property in town and each time the building department is the biggest hurdle to getting anything done. I've had instances where they were making my seller close out a permit that was open by the seller before them!! So either the city allowed her to close with an open oil tank permit or they are not maintaining proper records. The most frustrating thing is they have ZERO standard operating procedures. Once you fulfill one request they then tell you will need to do something else and once that's completed something else will be requested, as opposed to being clear from the start on everything you need to do in order close out any request. I wanted to buy a home in Union City and thank god I never did. I work in several cities in different parts of the state and this building department is hands down the worst."

"Most Union City building workers are polite. However there is one Sal Ferlise that has issues. Knowing what this Mayor expects from his workers I don't get how Sal still works in building dept. Besides having a very awkward creepy way he's mood swings from second to second. If you can stay away from him it will be best."

"I wish I can give them negative 4 stars . These people are pure evil who works there , they pretend that they own your house . I do not recommend anyone to buy a renovation property in this town . If you do you will go through a nightmare!"

"The state uses sticky notes and old photocopies of paper to process requests. That paperwork gets lost or misplaced. The paperwork is hard to physically move, process, and it's unsearchable, confusing, costly, and aggravating for all involved. It's a burden on all of Union City that the people pay for in more ways than they realize. The jobs of my 48 employees are hanging in the balance simply over misplaced paper. If a tech company or someone at the department decided to update their system, it would be a huge relief for everyone involved. When my business finally moves in, it will be two and a half years worth of waiting. The workers at the building department try their best to help and with a smile on their face, unfortunately, though, they are also in the middle of a difficult situation. Digitizing the information and posting the information on the internet like banks or hospitals do is the solution. Simple online computerized decision-trees and a ticketing system would help navigate codes, what to apply for and when, and solve a lot of unnecessary repeated requests and delays. Finally, Union City does not have a Zoning Official at city hall, so any decision regarding zoning requires the zoning board. The board only meets once a month and for only a few hours. The Union City building department employees say that if they had a Zoning official on site many requests could be sorted quickly."

"The Building Department sent an inspector to my apartment building where I showed him damage caused by construction and neglect leading to numerous violations such as broken windows, broken stairs with nails sticking up, broken banisters, jammed doors, crumbling walls, cracked bubbling ceilings, water coming out of faucet handles, broken entryway system, holes in walls, loss of heat etc. After months and numerous calls to the department and the mayor where I was assured a letter of repair would be sent to owner of property and a summonses issued if he failed to repair. Absolutely no follow up was done The repair letter wasn’t sent for nearly a month and did not even list what repairs were needed and no follow up or summons were issued. No one at the building department will take responsibility or bother doing their job. The most corrupt department at city hall"