Buying a house with unpermitted work? (Bloomfield, Fair Lawn: sale, real estate, insurance)
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How does this work? Will the seller get "in trouble" when the town goes to do an inspection for certificate of occupancy and sees new work done? If the owner is unable or unwilling to go back and get permits then what? If I think the work is fine then can we just not worry about it? How would the town even know how old or new it is? If it matters, its a kitchen, no layout change, but it was brought up to code (ironically) with electrical work - so it has new cabinets, appliances and new circuits for all of the appliances, etc.
Last edited by joe moving; 01-07-2010 at 06:10 AM..
we recently sold our home in NJ. We were on the other end of this situation.
The buyers wanted us to put in contract that we would get permits if required. we did this hoping it never came to that. When the co inspection was done there was never any mention of new work etc. We did not add on. to the home, all the work was done inside. We took space from the garage as well. But from the outside you would never know. we changed windows, siding. (you can change window and doors if they are going in same space, with out a permit) moved a bath from one location to another. we renovated kitchen and add'l bath. all without permits. The inspection was done and she issued us the CO. But I think from now on we will do all renovation with permit.
Note: My dh is a contractor and I am an interior designer and we did all the work according to code(except pulling permits) most of the plumbing could be seen in the crawl space. The buyer also had a home inspection and nothing came up. make sure you get a home inspection.
Good luck and hope it works out for you.
Depends on the town. Some towns just do an inspection for smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, etc., and some do a thorough inspection to see what's been upgraded. Rahway is one that comes to mind that gets ridiculous with CO inspections.
I'd call the town the house is in, and ask what the CO inspection process consists of. Your real estate agent should know as well, if he/she does alot of deals in that particular town.
I sold a house through a company relo. Which adds more to the process than normal.
I had a roof redone, new shed, and deck all done to my house without a permit.
I was asked for permits and said I didn't have them. Sale still went through fine.
CO in that town was just your standard fire alarms thing.
I did all my work to code so I wasn't to worried. But I had a friend who finished their basement and it was caught on their sale. They were required to come back and do some changes to it to get it approved. (Had to add insulation to some gaps, etc...) Nothing major but it almost killed the deal.
Redoing the kitchen (replacing cabinets, countertop, wall covering or flooring) with incidental updating of electrical cirruit is hardly a project that would require permit .. Adding on to the house or converting some space to a bathroom should be subject to permitting and inspection because that is something the professionals are knowledgable (all the pitfalls) about and it adds to the value of the original assessment.
well, anything new electrical short of replacing a switch or outlet requires a permit in most of NJ i believe. it sounds like most do not believe it should be an issue though.
How does this work? Will the seller get "in trouble" when the town goes to do an inspection for certificate of occupancy and sees new work done? If the owner is unable or unwilling to go back and get permits then what? If I think the work is fine then can we just not worry about it? How would the town even know how old or new it is? If it matters, its a kitchen, no layout change, but it was brought up to code (ironically) with electrical work - so it has new cabinets, appliances and new circuits for all of the appliances, etc.
You want to be sure it's inspected & approved by the town before you buy it. Look at it this way; if everything is in fact done right, passing the inspection will be no problem. If it's NOT done right, you want the seller to deal with it, not hand off the problem to you.
Another reason is insurance. Your insurance company will want everything to be properly inspected & permited. If there were to be a fire, your insurance company could investigate, find out that the work was done without permits, and deny a claim.
It depends on each town as BobKovacs said. We sold our house in Fair Lawn, 5 years ago. We had unpermitted work done to our house many years prior to selling our house. The town requires any home being sold to be inspected. Since we did not have any of our work done with a permit, not only did we, the seller, had to buy permits at the new fee, we had to have it inspected. We had to make expensive ($10k) changes to make it up to code and look good esthetically.
My guess, it should be up to the seller to have this expense. Why should you have to pay for this since it was their decision not to get permits.
In Bloomfield, almost everything requires a permit. Before I sold my house, I called the building dept to ask if I had any open permits. Bob's advice is right on. It depends on the town.
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sold house without permits
