No permits on addition in home I'm buying

[Meghan Helbick]

I'm under contract on a SFH in South Florida, and the carport was converted to an extra room, which I think is fairly common. I don't think the owner ever got a permit to do this addition. Eventually I would like to do a further addition to make another bedroom and bathroom, but my concern is that when I get permits to do so will I be stuck with paying back taxes on the non-permitted addition if they catch it?

Our realtor shrugged it off saying either don't get a permit for our future addition, or just be nice to the inspector.  Seems odd to me, but is this a common thing in South Florida?