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House Has Addition Without Permit...Now What Happens?!
invite response
2014 Dec 20, 11:52pm 5,224 views 8 comments
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John Bailo
2014 Dec 21, 12:16am
APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says
The house should never have been listed without resolution of the unpermitted extension.
One thing that's good about this state is the owners have to provide "lemon law" seller disclosure statement that covers all key structural and utility features of the home.
zzyzzx
2014 Dec 21, 12:20am
Personally, I would not buy any house that had a addition, permitted or not. It's just never done right.
Having said that, if selling or buying a house with unpermitted stuff (which all houses have to some extent) I would not worry about that.
John Bailo
2014 Dec 21, 12:25am
APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says
a badass inspector to just petition for the occupancy permit to be pulled
Yes, exactly!
It's impossible to set a fair value because anything can happen. Maybe the addition has damaged the central structure and it is truly unliveable. Maybe they'll just give me a permit...
It's like buying a stolen car...how can you make it right? You can't!
indigenous
2014 Dec 21, 12:30am
It might be a deal because of this? Cities like all government just want money and no liability, comparatively speaking this should not be a show stopper.
Might be worth checking in with the local building department, they may just want some plans drawn up and an inspection for what is sub par.
zzyzzx
2014 Dec 21, 12:31am
Seriously, when have you seen an addition that didn't look like an addition?
That and I have seen several where they never bothered to fix the lighting such that the lighting switches made sense.
Perhaps the police can speak with the seller. Or at least the listing realtor.
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I can't even begin to think how something like this would get disentangled?
As a building inspector let me tell you how it will be solved. It will really depend on the jurisdiction and the quality of the workmanship. In the vast majority of the jurisdictions they would just deem it built without permit and demand to have it torn down. There is a chance that the jurisdiction will examine the addition, note the deficiencies and the areas that it doesn't meet present code, tell the owner to correct those areas, bring it up to code then charge somewhere around 3X the permit fee to get it accepted.
Bottom line, to include it, it will be expensive.
Can it even be sold as is?
It could be, depending on the building departments opinion. However, if they say to correct everything and that they will let it stay, they can (and probably will) pull back the occupancy permit until the corrections are made and it is inspected. Of course the contract would have a statement about the building being permitted, and accepted by the building department and the occupancy permit being issued before anyone is allowed to live there.
I was looking at a house and was surprised when, although advertised as a 3-bedroom there was a large extra addition though very poorly insulated.
As I reviewed the seller disclosure I find that this addition was built without the owners getting any building permits.
I can't even begin to think how something like this would get disentangled?
Do the owners have to go through the process of getting a permit before it can even be sold? Or tear down the addition?
Can it even be sold as is?
Might such a large addition have damaged the central structure making the whole house unlivable?
At the very least I'd say it entitles me to a substantial discount if I were to deign to bid on such an animal...