Property w/ Possible Unpermitted Addition

[Luke Stone]

I'm actually looking at a property as a personal residence in Richardson, TX, and am posting here bc I can't find too much info. What I am a little concerned about is a 300 sq ft living room addition to the back of an older house.

I am not sure if the addition was done w/ proper permits or not. The current owner of 15 years stated the addition was on the house when he purchased it and does not know when it was added. I did go to the building permit department and the property only had 1 permit in its entire history back in 2009 for gas line work. The lady at the office stated though, the age of the house makes it difficult bc it was built in 1960 and the permit records aren't really accurate for things done before the late '80's.

My concern is that the addition makes the layout of the property very awkward and to make the addition seem more apart of the house, one of the structural load bearing walls needs to be removed (the wall actually used to be the outside wall before the addition; the brick is still on the inside wall of the addition).

So in order to remove a structural wall, I will have to get a permit and have it inspected. I am worried that if the addition wasn't done with permits properly the 1st time, that when the inspector comes to evaluate the wall being removed, he'll just say the whole addition wasn't done properly and I will have to get the addition removed.

Do anyone of you have any insight on additions without permits? What are the chances it would have to be torn down? I've also heard that sometimes city inspectors will work with you and just require things necessary to bring it up to code? Does the age or rather unknown age of the addition have any bearing (based on the fixtures I'd bet it was built in the early '90's, but that's not full proof)?