If I’m buying a home and I know that the present owner has done a lot of improvements on the home (it’s beautiful) but the owner hadn’t gone through the process of permits for work, is there a problem with me buying the house “as is”. It’s been inspected and there are so problems. In this case, would a CO be a neccessity ( say for a deck that was added on) if I’m willing to purchase the home without one?
Well if your trying to get a government loan like VA ect they sometimes will not grant loan based on such things
The HUD auction just noted that it had unauthorized improvements and if you took the house you singed a bunch of forms absolving them of responsibility
Some places do have it where the committee or zoning people involved come for a fee inspect it and just back date the permits
Note also Local law would come into play with this so check with a relator
Definitely ask your attorney about this. In some jurisdictions, you could be buying yourself a world of problems.
Also your bank may require it - but they might not know the deck is there in the 1st place.
I hear ya, I’m just simply saying that, here’s a house that I’m interested in buying (4 bdrms, 2bath, ac, deck, 1/4 acre, etc, etc), I pay for an inspection (at the banks request), the inspection comes back that all is in operable safe order… What else is there really to know.
Ok, say the owner didn’t get a permit to build the deck, so, the deck is built and an inspector signs off on it that its safe. Isn’t that the main thing? Isn’t that what the bank needs to know in order to process the mortgage loan?
Obviously the permit is just a money grab from the town. It really doens’t mean much, right?
Yes, it’s a money grab, but it’s a legal necessity. At some point your property taxes will be re-assessed, and the town will check to see if the necessary permits were taken out. When they find out they weren’t, the prior owner is in for a heap of legal trouble and fines, and you could be too if they can prove you knew the necessary permits were not there. And your property taxes will go up for “improvements.”
In a memorable case in my office, some land owners built an entire house without letting the city know, and signed a contract with one of our customers (for $3.5 mill), who then signed a contract to sell his present house (for $1.5 mill). Everything was find till the buyer demanded a Certificate of Occupancy, and then the legal house of cards fell. We’re still in court over it.
Agree. It’s also conceivable that if some of the improvements are non-conforming, they may have to be dismantled and/or re-done.
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ouch.
This is a simple case of pulling back permits. The seller will have to pay any fees and it will have to pass inspection. You don’t want to buy it if it doesn’t pass inspection (town and bank) anyway. It shouldn’t be a problem as long as there are no zoning issues. If/when it passes, you get any required CO. The seller should have figured this was going to come up sooner or later, so don’t budge on your offer or agree to absorb any of the costs of straightening this out.
So, is it a simple matter of obtaining a “permit-in-retrospect” sort of. I mean, the thing is already there. If the power’s that be just want the necessary paperwork, is it just a matter of obtaining the permit and then saying “OK, now everything is legal, we can procede with the mortage?”.
As far as the property taxes, I’m not looking to “get away with anything”, just trying to avoid mumbo jumbo. Buy the house, when the town does as assessemtn, do it and charge me. No problem. Why the town needs extra money because a house has a deck on it is beyond me but, that’s another story. I mean, who’s got time to go back and forth so some clerks office for a $50 permit. It’s just annoying. And then to have to deal with some building code inspected who thinks “who he is”. Its a wonder any homes are purchased because of this.
venting
** Omnipresent **. Please don’t shrug this off. I’ve seen people who didn’t get the permits being fined $5,000 plus $50 a day until the matter was fixed. It’s never wise to do these things without legal permits. Check with a realtor and/or real estate attorney before proceeding.
May I add that where I live, the seller will pay the permit fee, and if it doesn’t pass code on inspection, he or she will pay any additional reinspection fee and possible fine each time it’s reinspected. That can become very costly, especially if the code inspector has to come back several times. Although a homeowner is allowed to do any work on his property without a contractor, he must still get the permit and it must meet code.
In my city you just visit the city offices & ask them to see the folder on the house & it should list things like permits that they got or didn’t get.