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For the last five years, 72-year-old Maria Torres has been renting a room in Hollister, unable to return to her fire-damaged house because, as two contractors she has worked with have claimed, the city has repeatedly imposed delays in approving the repairs.
Torres, along with her nephew, Sergio Torres, the owner of Torres Roofing, reached out to BenitoLink following the publication of a recent article detailing similar problems that business owners Mike and Tracy Nino faced with the city of Hollister during the refurbishment of the facades of two buildings they own on Airline Highway.
The Ninos were the first to go on the record with BenitoLink after nearly a year of interviews with many business owners, contractors and residents. Until then, all had spoken off the record, saying they feared retaliation from the city.
“I have a lot of clients who have been really frustrated,” said Tammy Johnson, who owns “Dezigns to a ‘T’” in Hollister and experienced similar problems with the city. “I just wish more people would talk to you, but I understand because, really, it affects your business if they know you’ve said something.”
As the contractors relate past and ongoing problems, there seems to be a pattern that suggests, in the words of one business owner, “arbitrary and unnecessarily applied” enforcement decisions by the city that delay the final sign-offs.
It might be inspectors going off-project to find faults, such as when a business replaced a heater and was told by the inspector that they could not get final approval unless the company also made changes to an unrelated external part of the building.
Or it could involve fees being charged, such as when a contractor trying to partition an office into an already-zoned living space was told that an earthquake study costing about $100,000 would have to be conducted for what was described as a relatively simple $25,000 job.
Or it could be finding last-minute faults in work that had previously been inspected several times, as in one case where replacing like-for-like windows was held up because the contractor was told the windows, already installed as approved in the plans, were too small.
“They’re taking one job,” said one business owner who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, “and holding it hostage due to their opinion. I think that the keyword here is that their interpretation of the law is subjective.”
Long saga begins
According to Sergio Torres, who was the second contractor on the project at his aunt’s home, the delay in her returning to her home is because of a series of continuous correction notices issued by the city that concern virtually every aspect of the main house and an adjacent detached building.
In early June 2019, there was a small grease fire in her kitchen, resulting in smoke damage. At the time, Maria Torres was renting out the main house and living in the detached building, a converted garage.
Torres said she had been in “survivor mode” when she rented out her home and admits that it was not legal for her to live in the detached unit.
On June 10, 2019, 4 Leaf Building Inspector Eric Martin assessed the structural integrity of the house, accompanied by representatives of the Hollister Fire and Hollister Code Enforcement departments.
In his report, Martin cited numerous problems, including termite damage, decayed wall studs and rafters, cracked drywall, and water damage. On June 17, 2019, Hollister Code Enforcement issued a “Substandard Housing Check List” detailing 20 violations of the Uniform Building Code.
Following the initial repairs, on Nov. 19, 2019, Torres was forbidden to rent the home again until all code violations were corrected, though she was allowed to occupy it.
The more serious fire started on June 6, 2020, around a power panel on the exterior of the house. It destroyed 60% of one wall, mainly exterior damage, according to Sergio Torres, and required replacing windows, drywall, insulation and the shear wall.
Torres was now displaced from her home. She hired the first contractor, Monterey’s California Premier Restoration, which, according to its website, specializes in disaster cleanup, mold remediation, smoke, wind, fire, storm and flood damage.
On July 16, 2021, after making substantial repairs, including those unrelated to the fires, and exhausting Torres’ $45,000 insurance settlement, California Premiere Restoration withdrew from the project.
“The contractor finally threw in the white towel,” Sergio Torres said. “He told us, ‘I can’t do this. I already fixed the fire. They just won’t give me an occupancy (permit).’ He said when inspectors would come out, they kept moving the line—‘fix this, fix that.’”
Later, when the contractor tried to contact the California Premier Restoration contractor for information about the project, they were told by the contractor’s secretary that he was “so traumatized by his dealings with the city that he never wanted to even pass by Hollister again.”
Maria was now out of funds, and Sergio Torres took over the project about four months after the first contractor gave up. With 30 years of experience, he said he believed the work was 90% complete at the time. He eventually spent another $30,000 of his own money on repairs.
At the beginning, Sergio Torres said that Hollister building official Gabe Martinez was “really nice” and told the Torreses that he was there to help. However, as the work progressed, though, Sergio Torres found that every time he called for an inspection—roughly once a month—the city would add more requirements and find new issues, to the point where “it seemed they wanted a new house.”
As things moved forward, he said, inspectors began coming by frequently to look at whatever work he was doing, and handing out more correction notices.
At one point, he said, four inspectors went through the house at the same time, “looking like a SWAT Team,” each with their own notebook. They gave him, he said, “enough work for a whole year of stuff that needed to be replaced.”
Another visit was less productive. Inspectors from 4 Leaf Engineering, a firm that Hollister contracts with on plans and inspections, went through the house, reportedly saying, “The ceilings are so low, the cabinets are ugly, I can’t believe people can live like this.”
When asked for guidance to help bring the project to completion, the inspectors suggested demolishing the attached building where Maria Torres had lived before the fire.
The cooperation he first encountered faded away, Sergio Torres said. He said that he would call Martinez or go to his office to try to schedule another walk-through. “He never came by,” Sergio Torres said. “He never scheduled another meeting.”
(BenitoLink requested interviews with Martinez and Assistant City Manager Rod Powell on Dec. 15 to address concerns voiced by contractors on and off the record. Neither responded to the request. )
Toward the end of his work on the site Torres was instructed to redo the already installed shear wall because, he said, Martinez insisted that the work be done with stainless steel rather than galvanized steel.
“It doesn’t say stainless steel in the code,” Sergio Torres said. “Gabe won’t let me cover it with stucco because it needs an inspection. The wood has already gone bad twice because it’s exposed to the rain while we wait.”
Another hang-up was the installation of the new 100-amp service panel, which he said Martinez initially approved but then pulled the release when Sergio Torres went to pick it up at his office. The specifications, he said, had suddenly changed from the installed 100-amp electrical service, identical to the one in the original unit, to a 200-amp service.
“They wanted a panel upgrade that had nothing to do with the fire,” he said. “I applied for another permit to get power in, and that’s when he changed the rules. He said I needed an electrician and blueprints of the whole house.”
At that point, Sergio Torres lost his $3,500 deposit to PG&E for turning power to the house back on because he exceeded the utility company’s 120-day deadline.
Costly delays, changing guidance
In early August 2025, the Torreses sought an electrical engineer’s help with the service panel and the remaining work. “It doesn’t matter what I do, the city just wants more and more and more,” Sergio Torres told him.
Maria Torres went down to the city Building Department office to plead the case herself, but, unable to speak English and not offered an interpreter, she left the office unheard.
“Each time I went to the city, I was unable to talk to anyone,” she said. “I felt uneasy, and it made me very depressed. I didn’t know what to do; I just wanted to get back in my home.”
There has been no progress on the home since, other than to pay for the complete set of plans that Martinez insisted on. They are ready to submit, but, unlike other cities and counties, Sergio Torres said, it is not just a matter of dropping them off at Hollister’s building office.
“I do a lot of construction in Santa Clara County,” he said. “Over there, you can walk in the same day and apply for a permit. Right here, you walk in, you have to make an appointment. It takes about two weeks.”
Two weeks was optimistic. The earliest available slot for the new contractor to submit the plans is Feb. 3. But this timing is problematic because new building codes take effect on Jan. 1, meaning the plans will almost certainly need to be revised to comply with them.
Between February and December 2025, BenitoLink conducted more than 20 on- and off-the-record interviews with people who found the city’s permitting and inspection procedures unworkable.
Several, like the Ninos, have said they would no longer bring projects to Hollister. Others have given BenitoLink more names of people they believe would be willing to voice their concerns.
In the meantime, every attempt is being made to get Maria Torres back into her house. Until then, she will still be paying $700 a month for a room, along with the mortgage on a home she can’t live in, all the while wondering why the city is not helping her.
“Why are they this way?” she asked. “And what can we do? Do we have to have a lawyer? Because this is terrible. Why do they get away with this?”
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