Unpermitted addition to home in Southern CA

[Andy K]

Hi all,

I wanted to ask folks on the forum some advice about an issue we found out today.

We purchased a rental property in Riverside County in Southern CA in 2013. This was a foreclosure, so we never met the previous owners, or get any detailed information about the home from the REO bank that owned it.

When I called Riverside county today for a different issue, I found out that the previous owners of the home had applied for a permit to build a second storey addition to this home in 2006, but the permit was voided. But the home right now is actually a 2-storey home, so it looks like that the previous owners built the second storey addition (it is about 900 sq ft total), even though they did not get the permit approved.

I wanted to ask folks here advice on what we should do now. If I were to approach the Riverside county building code department to get this addition legally permitted, how much would the approximate costs be? Is there a lot of paperwork and other hassle involved in getting this done?

Or should I stay silent on this matter, since this is how the home was when we bought it and were not aware of it till today.

Any advice on this matter would be very helpful. Thanks for your help and suggestions.

- Andy.