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Absolutely agree (though it may depend where you live). A friend of mine bought an existing house, and after about 6 years wanted to put an addition on the back. Had the plans drawn up, went to the planning board, and indicated he would have to pull the deck off of the back of the house. They said "What deck?" Oops. They made him pull it, regardless of whether he would build the addition or not, and he got fined.
Either insist the permit issue is resolved, or walk away.
Best answer. You don't want to inherit possible uncovered issues....since you know they didn't pass inspection on what you can see.
Run, don't walk.
Don't look back.
There are too many homes for sale out there to
even bother with this house.
It's a buyer's market, right?
Have fun, choose another one.
Don't ever get attached to a house.
Good Luck!
You will find a better home, i am sure of it.
Thank you all for your advice and encouragement! I did get too attached to it, and was still hoping there was some way to justify moving forward with the contract - despite hubby and agent both saying "walk away". After hearing your opinions and hearing about the mortgage and insurance issues on top of everything else, I feel lucky that we dodged this bullet. I too have faith that we'll find something even better!
Thank you all for your advice and encouragement! I did get too attached to it, and was still hoping there was some way to justify moving forward with the contract - despite hubby and agent both saying "walk away". After hearing your opinions and hearing about the mortgage and insurance issues on top of everything else, I feel lucky that we dodged this bullet. I too have faith that we'll find something even better!
Sorry OP. Better to walk away than have the dream turn into a nightmare. I hope you find something you love even more.
OP here. I think the problem is that there's no way to know what needs to be done to get the permits. It's conceivable that there could be something that can't be fixed and the whole thing has to be torn down (for example, something like the required clearance between the wood framing and the masonry chimney in the sunroom). I think that's why the sellers aren't willing to negotiate on this point - they probably don't want to open that can of worms and are just hoping that someone else will come along who gets a more cursory inspection or who is more willing to take one the risk of the unknown.
In that case, you made a wise decision to walk away. The downside was too great, unless you paid way under market for the risk that something is wrong.
Thank you all for your advice and encouragement! I did get too attached to it, and was still hoping there was some way to justify moving forward with the contract - despite hubby and agent both saying "walk away". After hearing your opinions and hearing about the mortgage and insurance issues on top of everything else, I feel lucky that we dodged this bullet. I too have faith that we'll find something even better!
Looks like your Home inspector did his job by educating you on the condition of the property so you can make a financial decision based on facts not emotion. Sometimes this is hard to do because of the inspection contingency clause. It's the small issues that add up. Congrats...
If you love the house, I would not hesitate. They cannot include the non-permitted areas in the square footage, and you cannot include them in the appraisal for the bank loan.
You may want to have a contractor with a background in rough carpentry or foundations look over the addition work. Anything else is easy to fix if there is a problem.
Non-permitted does not mean not up to code. Find out what the failures were. Many times they are nothing issues. We had failures because the electrictian who did part of our house forgot to put in GFCIs in some of the kitchen circuits. We bought two GFCI breakers and installed them and all was well. It cost about $30 I think.
Personally, there are many code requirements that I woudl nto care if part of my house did not meet them. (Anti spark circuit breakers for bedrooms is one example). Some code reqriements are ridiculous, some make no sense in some applications. Some are critical. If I loved the house and the price was right, I would have it looked over (not by an inspector, but by a real contractor and if you think you need it by specailty trades contractors (plumber, electrician, HVAC, Roofer). It may cost you $300-$500, but if it gets you the peace of mind you need to buy your dream house, it is well worth it.
Nearly every house i have ever lived in has had non-permitted additions. In some cases it was becasuse they did nto issue permits in our community in 1850. Most of it was OK. Some of it ws a bit a problem, but we corrected the issues over time. THe most expensive, a foundation problem, cost $4500 to correct. Look at it this way, if you knew this house was going to have an issue that will cost $4500 - $10,000 to correct, woudl you still want it? If yes - buy it. If no, then either pass, or spend a lot to have ti throughly inspected. Could there be a $20,000 problem? Certainly, but it is very unlikely. If you are going to have a $20,000 problem, it is more likely to be a problem with the main structure of the house than with an addition. Additions, especially builly bob additions are more prone to problems, but only very rarely to big problems. Of roughly 100 - 150 lawsuits I have been involved in over constrcution defects, maybe 10 of them have involved additions. Probelms with additions rarely cost enough to justify the expens of bringing a lawsuit. The BIG dollar problems are almost always withthe original structure of the house.
As far as the AC units breaking, there could be many causes. They may have been cheapo units to begin with (builder quality). They may have bene poorly maintained. Their kids may have regularly squirted water intot he condensor units with a hose. Maybe mice chewed up the wiring. Regardless it has nothing to do with what is in there now. If it concerns you, have someone look at it, they can tell you if it is a cheapo unit or not.
One thing a good home inspector can usually do for you is to put together a maintenance manual for you to follow. Find someone who will provide a real maintenance maual specific to YOUR house. Not some stupid boilerplate thing they got off the internet. A good maintainence schedule may cost antoher $300 to $500, but if you follow it religiously, it will save you many thousands in the long run.
OP here. Thanks for all your comments. We are just devastated because we've been house-hunting for almost eight months and this was our "dream house". If we walk away now, our kids won't be able to start in their new school, and we are back to square one. It's a beautiful house and you would never guess there were any issues at all. Even our agent was completely taken by surprise. Some other issues that were uncovered include a sewage ejector pump in the basement that's not sealed because the discharge pipe for the wet bar goes into it. The inspector said this is a serious health issue because sewer gases are escaping from there. Also, the basement rec room has nine recessed lights on one circuit, and when he tested the dimmer switches they were at 125 degrees. All of these things can be fixed, but I guess we're not willing to take the risk that there are other things that we don't know about that could turn out to be major headaches. Also, we hadn't even thought about the insurance implications - thanks for pointing that out.
The sewer pump can be fixed for about $50. Maybe less DIY. THe lighting you need to find ut whether it is on a 12 ga/20 amp circuit or 14 ga/15 amp. If on heavier wire, you probably only need bigger dimmers (About $100). If the wire/circuit is too small for the load, you will need to split the circuit. Usually easy to do in basements, and possible for a few hundred DIY, but it could get very messy. Again these are simly not reasons to wlak away fomr an otherwise ideal house, IMO. There is no reward without risk
Just do this....Just do that...blah, blah, blah. The problem the Op is experiencing is expenses. How much extra money they have to update and make the home safe and livable. The Home inspector identified several areas of concern. It is up to the Home buyer to figure out whats affordable and what isn't. As your probably well aware of, once the home owner starts the repair process...permits must be pulled or should be pulled. Which means it must be updated to todays code not yesterdays. Sometimes a considerable expense. I had a client say to me once" I have heard nothing but positives things about this home...Now I need to hear the negative" The OP heard the negative and made an educated decision.
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