Western SD. Licensed plumbing and electrical contractors were hired and plans submitted to City. A building permit for kitchen/bath remodel was then obtained and approved in 8/2018. Over the course of about six to eight months, I received two inspection notices taped to my front door. Shortly after the second one of these was received, I called the City Building Inspector and relayed that I had essentially missed the rough-in inspection. Whoever I spoke to told me to simply call the office upon project completion and that an inspection with walls put up would suffice. Fast forward two years, nine months, and I came across one of these notices received when going through paperwork. I never had a City inspector come! What do I do at this point? If I recall, the plumbing contractor said they submit their work to the City but I never received anything in regard to that from the City. I’m not planning on selling but also don’t want an open/incomplete permit hanging over my house, or worse, possibly having to tear things down to get final inspection approval. Is there a way to check if a permit is open? How much trouble could I be in here? Thank you!
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Replies
Who pulled the permit?
I did.
Well then it pretty much rests on your ability to explain and the inspectors ability to understand the situation. Working with both local and state inspectors there’s some by the book personified and then there’s the other end.
I’ve done jobs where the homeowners pulled their own permits. While the responsibilities for calling for roughs technically was the owners, in many cases I was the one to be there for the inspections. This also gave me the assurance to “cover it up”.
Best of luck.
Calvin is correct, responsibility lies with the person who pulled the permit. We had a couple bath remodels and the contractor didn’t call for the rough in. The Inspector who came out for final was “the other end” type. I think the contractor paid him off but couldn’t prove it in a court of law, although I did send an email to his super, who sent a “by the book type” it did pass inspection after the contractor had to fix some things and the notes were corrected. The first inspector called an old steel pipe, an ABC which the contractor never touched. The first didn’t like the fact that the electrician left the old wiring in the attic and he had to pull it all out. The first never went into the cellar to inspect all the work done in there but passed it. I know this because I didn’t unlock the outside door to give them access and they never went down the stairs from inside. The second went down and the contractor had to make some corrections. It was a mess, to say the least.
Call the building department and explain the situation. I'm sure they will be very understanding and tell you what they need at this point. No real biggie, we've all done it.
In my opinion, also you have to file a detailed complaint to the building department. only they can help you to find the best way to solve this problem as soon as possible.