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My husband and I purchased a house on 14th Street one year ago which has an open permit for some renovation work don in 2004. We knew about the open permit before closing and so a contract was written up with the previous owner giving them 3 months from closing to do what was necessary to have the permit signed off by the buildings dept. It is now almost a year and the previous owner has made little effort to close the permit. There is money in escrow that is being held in the event that we must do the necessary work to get the permit closed, but the previous owner and their lawyer are dragging their feet. We have spoken with the original architect of record who has given us a list of what needs to be done to complete the work and we are getting an estimate from a contractor for the cost, but once we go to the owner and his lawyer with this my worry is that they will still find reason to delay. Technically, the owner is already in violation of the contract given that the 3 months are up. How can we demand that they hand over the escrow money so that we can do the work? Thanks to anyone who can offer advice on what we can do to expidite the situation?