Beginning of a New Project

I have purchased a shell a few months ago in North Philadelphia, close to Temple University. It is a large 3-story house with 4 stories worth of trash - every floor plus the basement was full of trash. Obviously squatters were living in the property before (I'll later make a separate post on how to evict squatters, or file an eviction in general in Philadelphia), and there are stained mattresses, broken tv sets, and countless useless junk all over the floor.

So the first thing we need to do is simply to clean out the property. In Philadelphia, the city now requires a permit to be obtained before you can obtain a dumpster. This is what you have to do to obtain the permit (click here to view the file in pdf format) called the "Application for Street Closure". This application should be submitted 10 days before you start work. Once the city processes this application, they will fax you a permit and ask for you to send in or stop by to submit payment. The cost is $40 per week, although I'm not sure if the cost varies due to location or size of dumpster. Once you receive their fax, just forward it to your dumpster company and get your dumpster.

I believe the Streets Department handles these permits. The contact information I have for them is:
phone: 215-686-5501 fax: 215-686-5502
to extend the time period for a permit: 215-68-5524 / 215-686-5525
address: 9th Floor 1401 JFK Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19102

By the way, all the information I post here is based on my personal knowledge and experience. I think the city secretly change their phone numbers, names of departments, and make up new departments sometimes so that you never know who you really should talk to. Anyway, at this stage, I am also ready to apply for the permit to start work on the property as well. Next post will be about my venturing into the world of L&I (license and inspections). Please wish me luck.