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I hope to get some perspective on possible scenarios to deal with a permitting issue that I most recently ran into with my bonus room. I most recently finished the construction of my bonus room. I bought my three story town home with a un-finished bonus room on the first floor of the home with the intention on finishing it myself. In 2009 I bought a permit, had the town in to inspect the space pre-drywall. Well, from that point it took me 3 years to finish due to unexpected financial and life events. During that time, the permit went stale and the code changed to require R-15 insulation in the walls. Under the old code, and what is in my walls, I have R-13 in the walls.
When I finished the room this past month I had the inspector in from the town. I failed because of the incorrect insulation. To pass inspection, I need to replace the insulation to be R-15 which would require me to take the walls down.
My question to all the real estate experts out there is, what would be the impact on the sale of my home if I just let this latest permit expire and sold the home with the room, as is, finished without a permit? Is it a large negative to have a finished un-permitted space at the time of sale?
Huge negative for a lot of people. I think a lot of buyers would demand you get it corrected as part of the agreement. Isn't the inspector going to follow up now that the town knows about the issue?
Huge negative for a lot of people. I think a lot of buyers would demand you get it corrected as part of the agreement. Isn't the inspector going to follow up now that the town knows about the issue?
I am working with the town to see what I need to get done to finish the space, and am also brining in an insulation company to go over costs of what it would take to fix the issue. My plan is to bite the financial bullet and chalk it up to a major lesson learned on building codes.
I asked the town if that was an option, and they said no. Their reasoning was that by taking that approach they would not be able to confirm that all the spaces have been filled and that there was a consistant R-Value rating throughout the wall.
I am really researching ever avenue and path for solution, but all of them lead me to getting the room up to code.
The only silver lining in this all is that I have no intent in selling the house for at least 2 years, and that is even a stretch. I have also considered renting out the property, that that is a discussion for another forum
Had you sold with a incomplete/open permit the space probably wouldn't have counted as anything but an unfinsihed space. Now, you have a building code violation needing to be corrected. It went from something the buyer may have an issue with, to something the buyers will have an issue with.
Example 1: Basement has an open permit for the finished space.
Example 2: Basement is not up to code and failed building department inspection.
All you had to do was renew the permit before it expired, and your job would probably been grandfathered in under the previous code. In my town, as long as there is consistent work going on, the permit remains in force.
You need to stop looking for a workaround and do this right to save yourself a LOT of hassle and possibly fines in the future.
How about another layer of sheetrock? Sheetrock must have R-2 worth of insulation.
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