Well, first let me tackle the phrase "not permitted but up to code". This could be a big No No folks. This basically means that the people who did the work on your home, whether it be a new shower, new kitchen or a whole new room, are telling you that all the work they did, according to them, complies with the current code laws and restrictions. But you can never be sure of that until you have someone look over the work that was done and give you a permit for it. While the work that was done may be "up to code" if something happens to your home, like a fire, if you did not get a permit, it is possible you could be held liable on criminal charges.
But aren't there a ton of homes out there that have had work done on them without getting permits, and if so, why? Yes, a lot of people do work without getting permits. This is very common. Some people think if they are just re-doing a kitchen to make it more modern, that they don't want to pay the government money to do so. But there are risk factors involved with doing this. Like I said above, there is the chance that something could go terribly wrong in your home and if someone gets hurt because of un-permitted work, well, that is just scary. But also, lets say your local fix-it man moves your water heater somewhere else in your home and when he does, the size of the pipes he installs are not correct. In fact, they are only 1/4" too small. Well if that water heater breaks or leaks and causes damage to your home, the insurance company that you call to help you fix all this damage may deny helping you since the work was not permitted. Ouch!
And here is the big one that a lot of people run across. Someone expands their home to add on a new room and make the house bigger but they don't get permits to do so. For example, Mr. Smith had a 1,200sq ft house and added 400sq ft to make his home a total of 1,600sq ft. Well years down the line, Mr Smith wants to sell his home and he lists it so that the price of the home is comparable to other homes near that same size. Then Mr. Buyer comes, makes an offer and starts the process with getting his loan for this home. Because this extra space is not permitted, appraisers can only base their appraisal of his home off other comparable home sales that are around 1,200sqft and not 1,600 sqft. And when an appraiser determines the value of Mr. Smith's home, he then has to tell Mr. Buyer's loan officer and if the value of the home is less than what they accepted the offer at, then the loan people won't give Mr. Buyer the full loan he asked for. So Mr Smith will either have to reduce the sale price of his home to be comparable to smaller house close to 1200 sq ft or they will have to look into other options that may not include getting a loan for this house. There are also limits on how close to your property line you can actually build out to. Another bad scenario is that you build out and it's too close to the lot line and your neighbor's property. Well, your neighbor Bob has always had a nasty way about him and he doesn't like you. All Bob has to do is call the city and they can come make you tear it all down. Another Ouch!
So, yes permits can cost us money, but in the long run they could actually save us a lot more money and certainly a lot of headaches.
Here are a couple of links to some local Building and Safety departments that can help you find out more about permits.
http://ladbs.org/LADBSWeb/building-permit-records.jsf
http://ladbs.org/LADBSWeb/map-vannuys.jsf
http://www.burbankca.gov/index.aspx?page=121
http://www.cityofcalabasas.com/BuildingSafety/main.html
http://www.ci.agoura-hills.ca.us/index.aspx?page=28
http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/planning/building_and_safety_division.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment