Listen to the radio today, one of those housebuilder shows talking about permits. what type job would need permit and what type would not. I would be afraid to ask in my county. The inspection office and I don’t play well with each other. Mainly its a invitation for the tax man.
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Replies
LIek the saying goes: Never ask for permission, just plead ignorance if you get caught.
Do I really need to hire a licensed sparky if a switch in my office needs to be replaced? What if I tear down some rotten sheetrock, replace a rotting stud, put in new flooring and replace the wax seal under the toilet in my rental?
IMO it's got complely riduculous.
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
Most simple repairs don't need permits. Adding new stuff or structural changes usually needs a permit. If you're competent and build to code or better, I don't get too excited about people not getting permits. One problem arises. When you go to sell the house, if the county discovers you have more bedrooms or other major changes they can be quite a pain. They can make you get a permit after the fact, charge fines, and make life miserable. If the work does not pass inspection you have a big problem. They can make you tear it down. Some counties are pretty forgiving and some are not. One county here wants you to get a permit just for replacing an outlet. Another one a couple miles away lets you build a 5,000 square foot barn with no permits other than zoning. It all depends. Some are actually concerned about safety. Some are a lot more interested in jumping your tax assessment. If your county has a web site, check it out. Sometimes they post what work needs a permit.
everything depends on your location for permits
in Mass u are suppose to get a permit for any, yes any, electrical or plumbing work. some folks say that is not true, but if u ask the state they say it is.bobl Volo, non valeo
Out of curiosity, I got copies of all the permits ever pulled on our house over the last 100 years. I figure about half of the work didn't have a permit pulled, or they didn't give me all that they had on record as I had asked. Some of this is now moot as the work was replaced during water and electrical service upgrades. The details on the really old permits was pretty sparse and I'm sure one could completely redo a room without them being able to say it was different than that originally permitted. The changes in romex to colored wire and date stamping will make this more difficult.
My old neighbor decided to replace his small 12x16 delapidated garage. he went though all the permitting hell, and wanted to get a 12 x 28 garage, but anything over 24 in one direction requires a variance that costs $500 just for the study, with no indication up front as to the likelyhood of getting it. He passed and paid a couple thousand for the new permits, only to find that the county had him listed as having a 12x24 garage already on the property from the early 1900's. That was part of my inspiration for getting the permit history on my place.
When the assesor came by one day, she noted that the room on the third floor had been finished (open shades and lights on), which they didn't have in their records. I figure the work was done at least 20 years ago, and poorly. The previous owner told me that the room was finished when he had bought it ten years earlier. It has been a couple of years and no one has come by to ask about inspecting it so I suspect the assessor just added it into her records and charged accordingly. This would raise a bunch of issues I suppose in the case of who was responsible for non-permitted work that had been done prior to purchase. I had one outlet short, and I'm sure no inspector had ever looked at the work originally. The assessor seemed to have better records than the building department. It was interesting that she came to measure the footprint, and the numbers she had were short about 2 ft in each direction. I wonder if she went back and recalculated my square footage and upped my taxes based on their error. Since the assessment was based on the sale price, and they can only raise 3% a year on existing structures, it would be interesting to see how thay would justify their changes. ;-)
As for the county, I often see real estate ads that feature a "bonus room" and when we visit the property, the room is clearly being used as a bedroom. I suspect that this is a code word so that the county isn't alerted to work that might have been done by the owners. I'm sure the assessment sheet doesn't have a keyword for "bonus room" as it does bedroom, den, etc.
Gotta agree with the majority, it depends on the local government. Here in SE Conn. (in my town, antway), the general rule is, if it alters the footprint of the property structures (or adds to them) or if the work would cause an increase in assessed value of the property, then a permit should be pulled, or at least applied for. And as has already been mentioned, that is purely for tax purposes.
I submitted a proposal on a basement reno that would have eliminated two sinks (it was a home hair salon that the new owner wanted to revert back) and when I asked the BI about a permit for the plumbing change, he told me not to waste his time. So I try not to. As often as possible.
As has been mentioned, they can get finicky if a permit was required and not pulled. A friend sold his house and the deck he had installed didn't have a permit on file. He was required to detach the deck from the house and move it 15 feet away. All before the town would stamp the approval for title transfer (or someother hokey peperwark deal.)
It's all about the money.
Here they want permits and an inspection when you replace an existing water heater. At first it sounded petty, but when you think about all the ways there are to do it dangerously wrong and still get hot water, it makes sense -- particularly in earthquake country, where straps are required.
-- J.S.
Round here, they will make you rip out unpermitted work, to the point of the first required inspection...i.e. if they find that I wired my workshop w/o a permit, then they could make me rip down the sheetrock, pull out the insulation, etc so they could then inspect. Don't comply, and they'll put the structure under condemnation.
(I think this is more to scare others into complying, rather than really inspecting me and making sure mine is correctly done).
I wonder how long it'll be before my purchase, of say, 500' of romex at BLowe's gets transfered to the computers at the county, and they look up to see if I have a permit to do something like that.....then the permit cops come to the door..."Mr. Bozo, we see here you bought 500' of romex, and have no permit on file to use it. What are you doing?"
1984