Interior renovation--do I need a permit? (San Antonio, Anton: house, contractor, inspections)

[hadleyzoo]

I emailed the San Antonio Development Services Department, and await their response hopefully later in the week. But thought I would post here to see if anyone knows.

According to their FAQs on their site: "If you are building more than 100 sq ft or moving walls or doors, a building permit is required."

We are not building 100 square feet, nor are we moving walls or doors. What our plans are is to take our massive game room and close some of that off to add another bedroom and large walk-in closet (actually it will end up being my huband's office and a large interior storage closet so maybe we can get a car in the garage ). We will be building walls, adding doors. I do realize we will need a permit for an electrician to come in and add a light and add a few outlets. No biggie there. We will not be adding any square footage to the floor plan.

[ShaneSA]

I would say you do not need a permit. The only reason to get a permit is to let the Bexar Apprasial Board know of the changes to increase your taxes. ( I may be a bit slanted in my opinion). the electrician should get the permit for work, if he thinks it's needed. You may not need a permit if the breaker box can hold a new circuit and your not doing extensive alteration to the electric.
I've done lots of renovations and changes and never get a permit. To me for what you are doing is just a free heads up to the apprasial board.

[hadleyzoo]

Thanks for your opinion...we were kinda thinking along the same lines too. Don't want to stir up any appraisals if we don't need to.

[Chaka]

If you ever plan on selling the house, get a permit. If not, then you can probably get by without one.

[hadleyzoo]

Well this definitely isn't my "forever" home. We would like to sell a few years down the road.

[Chaka]

Then the risk is the the renovations won't match up wiht the blueprint, and then you may have issues with things not being built to code.

FWIW - almost everyone I know (and everyone in our area is doing renovations) has tried to get by w/o permits. In the end, we've all gone ahead and gotten them. They're a sham, IMO, but I prefer to spend the money so there are no questions.

[hadleyzoo]

Thanks for the insight and sharing your experience. I guess I'll wait to see what the development department says...I'm guessing they will say yes only because they'll see $$$$. I'll post their response here just in case there are others here in the same boat.

[Chaka]

You know, the permits don't cost that much. IMO, the problem comes trying to get them to come to do inspections so you can close it in a timely manner if you're not a contractor.

I have major issues with the Development Office and their ethics, but we do get permits for everything we're required to, to be on the safe side.

[hadleyzoo]

And it's better to be safe now than sorry later...

[banker]

I sold a home back in February that had a large porch added - that was tied into the existing roof with electrical added and the concrete extended with new footers. No permit. We gutted and remodeled our master bath and kitchen with no permit.

When we sold - the house was inspected with all upgrades disclosed and we had no problem selling. In fact we sold our house in five days for our full asking price!!

If it is done correctly and to code - you can get by without a permit as long as you aren't adding to the square footage.