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Updated about 15 years ago,
Unpermitted structure at property
I posted about this before, but I have a new question about it.
This shed is in the backyard. I found out from the neighbor that it was built about 10 years ago by one of the previous owners. He told me that the various owners and tenants who've lived in the house have all made use of the shed to store their belongings.
From what I understand your supposed to pull a permit to build a backyard shed. I don't believe a permit was ever pulled for this.
I was going to fix it up to make it safe for use again (it has exposed nail points on the underside of the roof, and the floor is sagging in some areas).
However, what I'm wondering is: even if I fix it up, and a tenant gets injured in there anyway (trips and falls) and sues me, will my insurance deny liability coverage anyway, if they find out it doesn't have a permit?
I could tear it down, but all the other houses in the area have sheds, so this could make the house less attractive (having no shed). Although, the other sheds are conventional metal sheds, not a hand-built shack made out of scrap wood like mine.
I'm planning to call my insurance company next week about this, but I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of this, or been through this situation before. I don't know if there's a relationship between what an insurance company will cover and whether something was properly permitted or not.