Owner/builder affidavit and subsequent sale of house

[John Hinson]

Hi everyone,

I had a question relating to owner/builder affidavits. I had originally hired a general contractor to do the work on a rehab. He pulled the general permitting under his license. However, there was a bit of a falling out after ~85% of the work was finished, and the GC was subsequently fired. In order to finish the work, I signed an owner/builder affidavit. However, I didn’t realize the full implications of this (my mistake), and days later (less than a week) hired a new general contractor to take over with the permit under his license. No work was done while I was “officially” the GC. Since all of the work was done under a license, and the affidavit is claiming an exemption to licensure law, does the affidavit still apply? Am I locked into the house for a year? No financing was used through a bank, this was purely the owner/builder licensure exemption. I called the state licensure office and they seemed to imply that it was “ok” to change your mind so long as you got a licensed contractor on the permit. But I’m still worried In the event that the house is sold that this comes up as the affidavit stays on the file. Has anyone else dealt with this? Thank you!!!