Last winter, Lowell Strauss moved his precariously perched house to keep it from sliding off the towering bluff over Bolinas Beach after the foundation started sinking and broke in half. He acted quickly to avoid a disaster—too quickly for the taste of Marin’s code enforcement division, which red tagged the property in January, ordering him to stop work until he had the necessary approvals. Neighbors had complained to the county, concerned that Mr. Strauss’s efforts…