State and local building codes are designed to protect homeowners' health, safety and welfare. A seismically active state like California has certain building regulations on the books that are absent from building codes in Naperville, Illinois, where the threat of major tremors and earthquakes is remote, at best.
At the other end of the spectrum, an exclusive, gated community might restrict which colors homeowners may paint the siding on their homes — even though the rules of the local municipality do not extend that far. We've all probably read of incidents of noncompliance that could have resulted or did result in injuries or even fatalities.
And local real estate agents can regale any willing listener with stories about how house sales have been foiled because a home's reported square footage didn't conform with that computed by an appraiser who discovered a hastily built room addition in the backyard.
In California, the construction of new buildings as well as most home remodeling work requires a permit. The California building code states that:. If you only look to get a retroactive permit after the home has been listed, the closing process could extend further than the typical days. The retroactive-permit process can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a few months to complete.
The main benefit of going this route is that you should be able to maintain the current market value of your home. If the project was larger in scale, the listing price of your home may need to be lowered to reflect these issues. As touched upon previously, lenders are more wary about providing a loan on a home with unpermitted work because it increases their risk, which is something that you may need to account for when calculating the market value of the home.
There are a few additional considerations that you should keep in mind when selling a home with unpermitted work. However, legal recourse may be possible if the buyer is injured as a result of the unpermitted work.
Along with the possibility of facing a lawsuit, the major penalties associated with unpermitted work include heavy fines and being required to pay for reversing the work or bringing it up to code. When work has been properly permitted, the resale value of your home will remain the same or potentially increase, which is preferable to the alternative. With over 15 years of professional experience in the Los Angeles luxury real estate market, Jason Somers has the background, judgement and track record to provide an unparalleled level of real estate services.
His widespread knowledge helps clients identify and acquire income producing properties and value-ad development opportunities. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Disclaimer: We do not claim ownership of any media used in our blog posts and we do our best to use only royalty-free stock photography, content licensed from other third party apps or social media, and content that we've produced in order to provide our visitors with the best possible user experience.
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Table Of Contents hide. Some minor touch-ups to the home, made for aesthetic reasons, are typically fine. Other, more time-consuming and major improvements made to the home will typically require a building permit. There are a couple of reasons for this. The city needs to inspect the project during and after completion to ensure safety and health building codes are met by the work completed.
Like we stated previously, not all projects require permits, such as plumbing repairs, roof fixes, and your regular contractor jobs. However, here are some remodeling projects that require a permit:. This is a very limited list as permit requirements vary state to state. There are many cases from your neighbors and online about people who have regretted not acquiring a permit. Both are horrible excuses. If you remodel without a permit, there are numerous problems that can occur.
If you refuse to acquire a permit for the remodel to your home or on your property, you could be significantly fined. This fine will cost more than the original price of the permit.
Yes, your city officials can issue you a stop-work order, which means the contractor company you hired for the construction or other project will be forced to stop work on the project until you acquire the proper permit s to resume.
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