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This illustrates why you shouldn't fall in love with the house until you've closed on it.
Until you talk to your local building inspector you won't know what will have to be done, how much it will cost, or how long it will take to bring the entire structure into compliance. You should be prepared to either have the potential seller make it right or walk away from the deal.
I once had a situation where my neighbor needed a permit to sell the house next door to mine for something really petty--a small porch off the kitchen door. I didn't have any objection, but given how close together our houses were it could have been a problem for him. The clear lesson is to make sure everything is taken care of before you finalize the purchase.
In my experience, unpermitted structures should not be counted in the value of the house. Some lenders won't loan on a property with unpermitted structures.
For instance, we bought a house with a very nice detached garage. The permits had been pulled, but had expired. Real estate listings and comps did not include the square footage of the garage. The house had been on the market for over a year.
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Many years ago, my then-husband bought a hot tub. He "extended" the deck by adding a set of stairs off the backyard side, laid down a base for the hot tub and put wood all around it to match the original deck. He put up a railing with lattice for privacy and built a simple plant stand on one side (basically to shut me up because he bought the hot tub without talking to me about it first lol). The hot tub section is at ground level.
We upgraded our electrical service at the same time, using a licensed electrician who pulled the permit for that.
Years later, I happened to be looking at my property card, and the house drawing included the hot tub area (the hot tub was long gone but I still use the lower area to sit on). We've had at least one re-evaluation since then, but I've never shown anyone around the property. Either they are using satellite images (which I doubt because my tree covers that in summer), or someone took it upon themselves to walk around the yard without asking.
Either way, they know I have a patio of sorts, and I never told them.
The original deck was permitted, but the inspector never came back to check for railings for some odd reason. Unless he also did that without telling us he'd be there.
My taxes increase every year so I can't tell from that.
Inspectors charge money. Inspectors go on vacation and delay the process. Code authorities come up with crap that costs extra and delays thing (for instance now NEC says you need a keyed lockout on a circuit for a residential dishwasher). Once you're done, the taxman notices your property has more value and charges you more every year from now until eternity.
IMHO a porch will not be considered living space, so I don't think I will have to pay more taxes.
However, I don't mind doing so. This is why I live below my means...so that I don't find doing my civic duty by paying taxes to be a burden.
This illustrates why you shouldn't fall in love with the house until you've closed on it.
Until you talk to your local building inspector you won't know what will have to be done, how much it will cost, or how long it will take to bring the entire structure into compliance. You should be prepared to either have the potential seller make it right or walk away from the deal.
...meh...I'm quite used to being let down by those I love....
I love the house, the price was right. Or so i thought. It has a giant screen porch. Which was built without permits.
Either the seller will fix the issues or give me some cash back for repairs. I'm still trying to get a contractor for an estimate.
What does this mean as far as the permit goes? Does the person who does the repairs have to get a permit? Do I somehow 'report' this to the county? Or just leave it and have the next buyer deal with it. I don't even know if this would increase my taxes and the taxes are so low I'm not concerned about that. But I would like for this to be documented correctly.
What is wrong with people that they would just disregard this process? I get that people might think they are saving money. Wouldn't they prefer to have something built to code so they know it is SAFE? Why let some amateur contractor build something that large only to have it essentially devalue their home when it is time to sell?
In the places I have lived (and where I am familiar with builders), the homeowner is accountable for the un-permitted work, even if that work was done by owners two sales ago but it slipped through the sales processes. In short, it those places, once you buy the house, that un-permitted work belongs to you.
Where this gets tricky is if you experience damage to the un-permitted addition and file a claim. Your insurance company will balk on paying you to recover your losses. They may drop you. And if you ever try to sell, you are knowingly passing on illegal work on the house.
If me, I would double-check with the local inspecting authority. And, I would push this back to the seller - make them get it permitted. If they will not get it permitted, walk away.
Is some locations you are at the mercy of the local building-department........they could be cool and work with you, or jerks and really stick it to you, up to and including requiring the unpermitted structure be torn down.
OP. Just have the owner obtain a permit prior to closing. That puts all the liability on the owner. Otherwise, as other posters have mentioned, you really do not know what you are buying.
Unless you are Willing to bear costs associated, id walk.
I say that even though we are in violation ourselves.
When we bought our house, behind the garage is what ysed to be, and is listed as, a screened porch. The previous owner had loosely enclosed the screened porch. It is insured as a "screened porch ". It had some electric and aine exterior walls that were vinyl sided to match the house.
Without permits , we finished off insulating it, added more electric, added an outside light and exterior outlet ( our friend is a licensed master electrician so its all to code), added and finished off walls and ceiling, added an electric heat strip, and sealed, painted and carpeted the concrete floor. It is now our bonus room.
But should we get caught, we'll probably have problems. And should the house burn down, wed only get insurance to cover a "screened in porch ", not a while finished room.
Ive seen several HGTV Shows were people have bought houses with unpermitted additions. Ive seen it go both ways: 1) bring it up to code and get the proper permits or 2) tear it off.
So knowing its unpermitted, id tread carefully.
And reconsider either buying it or negotiating the price to get the thing legal.either way it will fall to you.
I guess I'm having some trouble wrapping my head around this as I have seen many many houses sold with additions and re-dos that either never had permits, or it would be impossible to check, due to how long ago the work was done. In the neighborhood where I own my house, almost every house has had work done from the 1950s on such as enclosing a screen porch, adding a little half bath off the back, adding a laundry room, putting up a deck, and so on. Surely no one is going back to see if the laundry room added in 1968 was done with a permit?
It's been a while since I filled out an owner's disclosure, but if the house already had work done to it when you bought it, then when you went to sell it, wouldn't you just check "unknown" where they ask you about unauthorized modifications?
I mean, I understand that code enforcement can come by an active job site and make them stop work if there's no permit, but who is it that's supposedly going to make you tear down a 5, 15, or 40 year old addition because it was erected without a permit? Has this ever ACTUALLY happened, in the absence of some kind of neighbor dispute that got nasty?
...But should we get caught, we'll probably have problems. ...
"Get caught"? By whom? Who goes around seeing if already-completed modifications to houses were done years ago with permits? I don't buy it.
Maybe the authorities in your town don't have enough to do. Mine do.
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