Pittsburgh building with no permit - newbie looking for feedback

[Craig Clark]

Hi BP, I was wondering if you could weigh in here and give me your thoughts.  My wife and I are still newbies and we are just now on our third rehab with only a front deck left to complete.  Our issue here is this project was supposed to be completed 3 months ago and due to Covid 19, like many of you, we were shut down before we could start on the deck and each day is costing us because or hard money loan will mature soon, not to mention missed rents.  What issues do you foresee if move forward completing the deck without a permit?  We have been trying to get one filed with the permit office but it's proving to be extremely difficult. I can't imagine it being a huge deal, the county already ready shows deck in the original build and we will only be removing the old deck and rebuilding it with the same dimensions. 

[Anthony Angotti]

@Craig Clark is this a flip or a rental? 

If it's a flip I'd be more concerned because on your disclosure you have to indicate if all the work was permitted. You'd have the same problem with a rental, but since the intent with a rental isn't to sell it right away it's not something I'd worry about as much. You also have liability if it fails and it wasn't permitted. 

If your concern is with fines then I don't think there's a high probability of you getting hit with them since the inspector isn't exactly out and about. However that's always a possibility. 

I don't think the risk here is tremendous, but there's obviously liability with completing work without a permit.

If you're flipping it you can always just give a credit for completion of the deck and do it properly. Or get it done when things open back up. Is this in City of Pittsburgh? I believe their permits office is still working, but the counter just isn't open. So perhaps there's another way to file your permit.